GE MEN 






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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



COLLEGE MEN AND 
THE BIBLE 



Clayton Sedgwick Cooper 

Secretary for Bible Study, Student Department 

International Committee of Young Men's 

Christian Associations 



Association Press : New York 
1911 






Copyright, 1911, By 

The International Committee of Young Men's 

Christian Associations 



Association Press 
124 East 28th St. 
New York City 



<v 






©CI.A292384 



COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 



THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED WITH LOYAL 
AFFECTION TO THE COLLEGE MEN OF 
NORTH AMERICA AMONG WHOM I HAVE 
WORKED FOR NINE DELIGHTFUL YEARS 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



CHAPTER ONE 

BIBLE STUDY 
AMONG NORTH AMERICAN COLLEGE MEN 

I. CoUege Men's Bible Interest .... 3 

1. Fraternity Groups ..... 7 

2. Professional School Students ... 8 

3. Undergraduate Leaders .... 9 
II. Bible Study Literature 11 

III. Faculty Cooperation 12 

IV, Breadth of View 13 

V. Outstanding Results of Bible Study Among Stu- 
dents 14 

1. College Friendships ..... 14 

2. Knowledge of the Bible .... 16 

3. Thoughtful Habits 18 

4. Life in Its True Perspective ... 23 

5. College Ethics 26 

6. Serviceableness 29 

7. Social Service 31 

CHAPTER TWO 

THE STUDENTS OF 
INDIA AND BIBLE STUDY 



I. A New Attitude . 








37 


II. College Leadership in India 








39 


III. Development of Individuality 








42 


IV. The Bible in English . 








44 


V. Caste System 








47 


VI. The Awakening of Conscience 








50 


VII. Service to Indian Society . 








55 


^III. Cosmopolitan Interest 








57 



Vlll 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER THREE 



BIBLE STUDY IN EASTERN ASIA 



I. Characteristics of Bible Awakening . 

1. Bible Interest in Japan . 

2. A New Bible Study Tendency . 

3. China and the Bible . 

4. Korean Students 

5. Foreign Teachers and the Bible 
II. Changing Conditions .... 

1. New Political Life . 

2. Opium Reform .... 

3. The New Education . 

4. Students in Tokyo . 

III. Bible Study Results in Eastern Asia . 

1. Emphasis upon Things of the Spirit 

2. The Bible and Reform 

3. Essential Christianity 

4. The Bible and Its Personal Influence 

5. A World-wide Movement . 



61 
61 
63 
65 
66 
69 
72 
73 
75 
75 
79 
81 
81 
81 
84 
86 



CHAPTER FOUR 

ORGANIZING BIBLE STUDY 
FOR COLLEGE MEN 



I. 


Group Plan ...... 


96 


II. 


Practical Courses ..... 


98 


III. 


Daily Study 


100 


IV. 


Systematic Bible Study .... 


102 


V. 


Student Leadership ..... 


104 


VI. 


The Organization of a Bible Study Department 


105 


VII. 


Suggestions to Individual Bible Students . 


108 




1. Thorough Study .... 


109 




2. The Bible Studied Reverently . 


111 




3. Thoughtful Bible Study . 


113 




4. Reading of Large Portions 


116 




5. The Chief Bible Personality . 


117 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER FIVE 



VALUES OF BIBLE STUDY 



I. 


The Bible, a Book of Good Cheer 


. 122 


II. 


The Guide to Friendship 


. 125 


III. 


Educational Values .... 


. 128 


IV. 


A Book of Action .... 


. 130 


V. 


Seeing Things Whole .... 


. 132 


VI. 


Life Values, Moral Values . 


. 133 


VII. 


The Book of Religion .... 


. 134 



CHAPTER SIX 



THE CALL OF MODERN LIFE FOR BIBLE LEADER- 
SHIP 



I. Present-Day Problems 

II. The Teaching Profession 

III. Men of Science ..... 

IV. Literary Men and the Bible 
V. The Christian Minister as a Bible Leader 

VI. Bible Leadership by College Men and Alumni 

VII. Bible Leadership in World Movements 



141 
145 
146 
148 
150 
153 
157 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Bible Courses and Literature which have Succeeded with 

Educated Men 163 

INDEX 



Index 



183 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



Bible Study Groups Meeting in Boats, University of 

Iowa ....... Frontispiece \^ 

facing 
page 
Wellington H. Tinker and His Cabinet of Bible Class 

Leaders at the University of Michigan . 10 V 

Chaplain Knox and Bible Class of Japanese Students 

at Columbia University ...... 13*^ 

A Group of Cadets with Their Leader, Culver Military 

Academy 181**' 

Young's Men's Christian Association Club House, 

University of Washington . . . . 25 V 

Delegates at a State Bible Institute in West Virginia 29 , 
B. R. Barber and One of His Bible Classes at the 

University of Calcutta, India . . . 39 V 

Chart of Madras, India, Showing Distribution of Bible 

Groups ......... 41 ^ 

A Bible Class at Colombo, Ceylon, out for a Study 

Session in the Open . . . . . . 42 1 

Hindu Worship on the Ganges . . . . 51 yf 

A Bible Group of Japanese Students . . . 63 v^ 

The Peking and Tientsin Staff — Leaders of Bible 

Study in North China . . . . . 70 ^ 

Sacred Bronze Bull in the Garden of a Temple, Kioto, 

Japan 72 ^ 

Young Men's Christian Association Building at Fu- 

Chau, China. A Confucian Tablet . . 76 ^ 

Flashlight Picture of Chinese Students' Bible Class 

in Tokyo, Japan . . . . . . 79 \/ 

K. Sajima with His Bible Training Class at Osaka . 83 \/ 



Xll 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



FACING 
PAGE 

Ross A. Hadley, National Student Bible Secretary for 

India and Ceylon . . . . . . 90 * 

Pages from Harmony of the Gospels Used by Reno 

Hutchinson ....... 103 ^ 

Dwight W. Weist with Bible Class Leaders at Stan- 
ford University ....... 105 * 

Bible Group at a Student Conference .... 114 V 

Bible Class Leaders, Mercersburg Academy . . . 127 >/ 

Organizers and Leaders of Bible Work at Carlisle 

Indian School ....... 129 / 

Colored Students Enrolled in Bible Classes at Howard 

University, Washington, D. C. . . . 135 ^ 

Bible Students in the Day Classes of the Chinese 

Young Men's Christian Association, Shanghai . 142 

Bible Class Leaders at the University of Toronto . 145 ^ 

Baseball at Northfield . . . . . . 156 v 7 



PREFACE 

The object of this book is to review the ever 
widening and deepening interest in Bible study 
among thoughtful men, especially among men 
in educational institutions, with the purpose of 
showing the conditions, responsibility and 
opportunity of educated leadership in the pro- 
motion of the study of the Christian Scrip- 
tures. The chapters on Bible study in the 
Orient were prompted by a world tour which 
the writer made in 1909, with the view of gain- 
ing first-hand knowledge of Bible study move- 
ments among students and educators in Asia, 
and of assisting if possible in their develop- 
ment. 

I wish to express my thanks to the editors of 
The Century Magazine, who have generously 
given their permission to the publication in this 
book of three papers, with certain pictures, 
which originally appeared in that magazine. 
I desire also to record my debt and my deep 
appreciation to my two associates, Neil Mc- 
Millan, Jr., and Harrison S. Elliott, for their 
invaluable assistance in the final preparation 
of this book for the press. 



xiv PREFACE 

In a large correspondence from various 
parts of the world, representing men and wom- 
en of almost every nationality and creed, the 
questions treated in the following pages are 
continually suggested. The writer is hopeful, 
therefore, that this book may be the means of 
assisting persons, both at home and abroad, 
toward the solution of some of these Bible 
problems, which are indeed life problems, 
through a new discovery for themselves of the 
Book which Goethe called "The Book of the 
Nations.'' 

Clayton Sedgwick Cooper. 

New York City, March 1, 1911. 



CHAPTER ONE 



BIBLE STUDY AMONG NORTH AMERICAN 
COLLEGE MEN 



"Of all books," said Mr. Charles A. Dana, the late veteran 
editor of the New York Sun, to the students of Union College, 
"of all books, the most indispensable, and the most useful, the 
one whose knowledge is most effective, is the Bible. There is 
no book from which more valuable lessons can be learned. I 
am considering it now not as a religious book, but as a manual 
of utility, of professional preparation and professional use for 
a journalist. There is, perhaps, no book whose style is more 
suggestive and more instructive, from which you learn more 
directly that sublime simplicity which never exaggerates, which 
recounts the greatest event with solemnity, of course, but with- 
out sentimentality or affectation, none which you open with such 
confidence, and lay down with such reverence. There is no 
book like the Bible." 

And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you 
free. — John viii. 32. 

And as it is owned the whole scheme of Scripture is not yet 
understood, so, if it comes to be understood, it must be in the 
same way as natural knowledge is come at; by the continuance 
and progress of learning and of liberty, and by particular 
persons attending to, comparing and pursuing intimations 
scattered up and down it, which are overlooked, and disregarded 
by the generality of the world. Nor is it at all incredible that 
a book which has been so long in the possession of mankind 
should contain many truths as yet undiscovered. For all the 
same phenomena and the same faculties of investigation, from 
which such great discoveries in natural knowledge have been 
made in the present and last age, were equally in the posses- 
sion of mankind several thousand years before. — Butler. 

The measure of the success of our lives can only lie in the 
stature of our manhood, in the growth in unworldliness and in 
the moral elevation of our inner self. — Henry Drummond. 



CHAPTER ONE 

BIBLE STUDY AMONG NORTH 

AMERICAN COLLEGE 

MEN 

College Men's Bible Interest 

A West Point cadet, addressing a large 
company of his fellow students in the autumn 
of 1903, uttered the following significant 
words : "The cadets at West Point know com- 
paratively little concerning the English Bible. 
The students of North America are planning 
to increase twofold the number of men study- 
ing this book the present year. We men at 
West Point should have a part, and we will 
have a part in this enterprise." In less than 
two weeks there were two hundred cadets at 
West Point studying the Bible. This number 
has been maintained and increased each sub- 
sequent year, and at present, despite the fact 
that these men have only forty-five minutes to 
themselves each day, 260 of the cadets are 
meeting weekly for a practical study of the 



4 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

Bible. Colonel Lamed, the dean of the West 
Point faculty, in speaking of this work said, 
"Judging from the results at the United States 
Military Academy, I am inclined to believe 
that this student uprising for the study of the 
Bible is one of the most profitable and strategic 
movements of our times." 

This awakening of new interest in the Bible 
at West Point was a part of a truly signifi- 
cant and influential movement of the last 
decade for volunteer Bible study in the col- 
leges. This enterprise reached in 1909-10, 490 
institutions of the United States and Canada, 
with 28,562 college men reported as continuing 
in their attendance upon these voluntary Bible 
classes for two months or more. 

This voluntary Bible study has been devel- 
oped through the leadership of the Student 
Department of the International Committee of 
Young Men's Christian Associations. Not 
only have the student secretaries of the Inter- 
national Committee, with the state secretaries 
and general secretaries given attention to it, 
but the International Committee has set aside 
certain men during the last twelve years to give 
their whole time to the promotion of Bible 
study. There have been distinctive features in 



NORTH AMERICAN COLLEGE MEN 5 

this Bible study movement. It has been volun- 
tary, devotional and systematic study. The 
classes have been organized into small groups 
usually under student leaders. The courses 
have been eminently practical and adapted to 
the life and thought of college men. The work 
has been carefully organized in each institu- 
tion, and sane and business-like plans have 
been employed to enlist as large a proportion 
of the student body as possible in Bible study. 

The work has been noteworthy because of 
its student leadership. It is peculiarly a stu- 
dent propaganda. More than three thousand 
college men were engaged in leading voluntary 
Bible classes in the institutions of the United 
States and Canada in 1909-10, and a large 
proportion of these men were being trained 
each week in normal classes. The success of 
this student leadership emphasizes afresh the 
fact that the supreme force in college life is 
the college man. The student, who lives upon 
the campus and who engages in the same activ- 
ities with his fellow student, is the deciding 
factor in any great change in the life of an 
institution. 

The following table will be of interest in 
showing that students in many institutions of 



6 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

diverse types have engaged in the study of the 
Bible. 



Institution 



University of Toronto 

University of Texas 

University of Illinois 

Iowa State College 

Yale University 

Pennsylvania State College 

Cornell University 

Princeton University 

Mississippi Agricultural College 

University of Wisconsin 

University of Pennsylvania 

Clemson Agricultural College 

Stanford University 

Columbia University 

Georgia School of Technology 

Dartmouth College 

William Jewell College 

U. S. Naval Academy 

U. S. Military Academy 

Syracuse University 

Lafayette College 

Northwestern College 

Emory and Henry College 

Webb School 

Keystone State Normal School 

Washington Agricultural College 

University of Virginia 

Lawrenceville School 



a a 


Mm 

0« o 


Si 


o 

.55 

S.5 


1019 


634 


6 


2800 


636 


605 




1150 


900 


592 


1 


3000 


512 


480 


3 


1600 


900 


450 


6 


3297 


460 


430 


2 


1400 


810 


400 


1 


4000 


524 


381 


8 


1400 


430 


360 


2 


956 


650 


350 


3 


2800 


806 


300 


3 


5033 


338 


280 


4 


651 


306 


255 


3 


1740 


280 


249 


1 


2000 


356 


208 




593 


200 


200 


4 


1112 


208 


192 


3 


509 


350 


184 


1 


774 


220 


174 


1 


413 


360 


170 


6 


1625 


162 


150 


1 


464 


147 


143 


1 


220 


166 


130 




232 


16T 


129 


3 


225 


105 


105 




300 


140 


100 


1 


1400 


200 


100 


2 


800 


107 


100 




392 



NORTH AMERICAN COLLEGE MEN 7 

Fraternity Groups 

Seventy representative Greek letter fra- 
ternity men of the University of Michigan 
gathered in the year 1904 at the call of a fellow 
student to consider the relation of Bible study 
to the fraternity house life of the university. 
After the nature and method of study had been 
presented to the men, this student, who was at 
that time captain of both the football and base- 
ball teams of the university, said : "I have been 
at the University of Michigan for more than 
three years and, as you know, I have engaged 
actively in college life. I have never been 
known particularly as a religious man, yet I 
have come to appreciate that, especially in fra- 
ternity life, some of us must face seriously the 
problems and the temptations of our college 
days. It appears to me that these problems 
can be considered best in connection with a sane 
and intelligent study of the Bible. I confess 
that I know little of the book myself, but I am 
determined to begin its study, and if there is 
no one else to do it, I will lead a group of 
athletic men in my own fraternity house." The 
result was the formation of groups for the 
study of the Bible in fourteen Greek letter 
fraternities at the University of Michigan. 



8 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

It is significant that from this beginning in 
one institution there has grown a continent- 
wide interest in this book among fraternity 
men; 5,061 members of Greek letter frater- 
nities during 1909-10 were studying the Bible 
with much interest and seriousness in voluntary 
groups in their chapter houses. The growing 
popularity of Bible study and discussion in 
college fraternities is one of the certainties of 
its value to American undergraduates. 

Professional School Students 

When Professor Henry Drummond made 
his first visit to America, he addressed the stu- 
dents in professional schools in New York 
City. He wrote home to a friend in England 
that he had never seen men who were more 
severely driven by their daily schedules, or men 
who were surrounded by fiercer temptations 
of every sort. As this plan for the study of 
the Bible grew in its comprehension of different 
classes of students, it was said that professional 
men would not be interested, nor would they 
have time to engage in such study. But it is 
notable that in the city of New York in 1910 
an average of 382 professional students were 
meeting every week and using a series of 



NORTH AMERICAN COLLEGE MEN 9 

studies upon the practical teachings of Chris- 
tianity. A similar and increasing interest in 
Bible studies is found among professional 
school students in Philadelphia, Baltimore, 
Chicago, and other cities containing such insti- 
tutions. 

Undergraduate Leaders 

Three hundred and eighty-five North 
American institutions reported the following 
facts concerning the popular standing of 
the Bible among leaders in college life in 1910: 

Representative Students Attending Bible Classes 

Prize and scholarship men 983 

Editors of college papers 653 

Class presidents 755 

Members of college glee clubs 1454 

Members of 'varsity baseball teams 1402 

Members of 'varsity football teams 1522 

Members of 'varsity track teams 1053 
Members of 'varsity basket-ball teams 712 

Members of 'varsity crews 92 

At the United States Naval Academy in 
Annapolis the chairman of the Bible study 
committee was last year the first ranking mid- 
shipman at the academy. Through his leader- 
ship, 340 midshipmen met weekly in Bible 
groups, while thirty-five of their number were 



10 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

acting as teachers, receiving instruction for 
their work from an officer of the faculty. 

At the University of Wisconsin the student 
who recently has been specially influential in 
the Bible campaign is probably the leading stu- 
dent in the university, being one of the most 
prominent men in the crew and on other 
athletic teams. An alumnus of Cornell, writ- 
ing from Ithaca, recently remarked that last 
season in nearly every Greek letter fraternity 
at Cornell there was a group of men studying 
the English Bible. He added that this study 
has become a popular and permanent interest 
of undergraduate life. For two years an em- 
ployed Bible secretary has been giving his 
entire time to the voluntary Bible work at 
Yale, while at the University of Pennsylvania, 
the University of Michigan, the University of 
Illinois, University of Minnesota, Cornell Uni- 
versity, and other institutions, the equivalent 
of a salaried secretary's time has been devoted 
to this interest. The development of this activ- 
ity among the large state institutions of the 
South and West is also of striking importance. 
In 1908-09 ten state institutions in those par- 
ticular regions reported an actual attendance 
of 3,678 students in voluntary Bible classes, 



NORTH AMERICAN COLLEGE MEN 11 

the superintending agency being the student 
Young Men's Christian Association. 

Bible Study Literature 

The introduction of Bible courses, reference 
books, and literature suitable to student life 
and conditions has had marked influence upon 
this movement. Many a college man, quite 
regardless of his belief s, would study this book 
if he really knew how to begin. A committee 
of scholars was formed a few years ago for the 
special purpose of preparing outline courses 
adapted to student life. The demand for these 
books has increased continually during the last 
ten years, and in the college year 1909-10 
33,657 books for the study of the English 
Bible, prepared by college professors and 
Bible specialists, were purchased from one 
agency and used for systematic work among 
students. 

Reference libraries containing well-chosen 
books relating to subjects treated in these 
courses have been formed in 260 different in- 
stitutions of the United States and Canada 
especially for the use of student teachers. 
These Bible studies cover a wide range of sub- 
jects, and include books relating to all parts 



12 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

of the Bible, as well as courses dealing with the 
practical application of Christian principles to 
modern life. 

Faculty Cooperation 

The assistance and advice of members of the 
faculty have been indispensable adjuncts to the 
success of this study. A council of thirteen 
Bible scholars is supervising the preparation 
of biblical literature. In addition to this coun- 
cil, seventy-five college presidents, professors, 
and alumni are associated with different stu- 
dent sections, and assist in the intelligent and 
practical development of this vital branch of 
education. In 1909-10 in 295 institutions there 
were 800 faculty men reported to be cooperat- 
ing actively in the conduct of voluntary Bible 
study. Members of college faculties gave 
training in 305 normal classes to the hundreds 
of students who led the groups. These men 
have brought to the movement the same logi- 
cal, experienced and intelligent processes of 
study used in the securing of knowledge in 
other branches of collegiate education. This 
cause will depend increasingly upon the assist- 
ance of mature scholars for teaching, for train- 
ing teachers and for general counsel. 



: 


y 1 


pW* 


LM 




, ^M^~%M 




1 fl 


1 


J# 1 


V>« 


* 


. 




r t. 7 K 



Chaplaix Knox and Bible Class of Japanese Students at 
Columbia University 



NORTH AMERICAN COLLEGE MEN 13 

Breadth of View 

There was a time when it seemed proper to 
a college man to apologize for the study of the 
English Bible. This attitude has been very 
largely changed by the breadth of view which 
has characterized this interest in the colleges. 
In the larger institutions where literally hun- 
dreds of men are members of these groups, 
well-nigh every variety of belief is represented 
and in many cases a goodly percentage of stu- 
dents in the classes do not profess any reli- 
gious opinion. Bible classes of Oriental stu- 
dents are found at Columbia, Cornell, Univer- 
sity of Pennsylvania and Harvard. A Bible 
class of Jewish young men has been reported 
at Columbia. Twenty-one per cent of all the 
men in Bible classes in the colleges last year 
were non-church members. 

I found this broad sympathy with the Bible 
interestingly demonstrated at one large East- 
ern university. One of these classes was formed 
in a house where there were living seven stu- 
dents who were accustomed to meet often for 
friendly discussion. Two of these students 
claimed to be pantheists, a third was an agnos- 
tic, there was one Christian, one Jew, and one 



14 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

Catholic. As the last man could not easily be 
catalogued, he was called a vegetarian. I dis- 
covered that these men had been discussing 
almost everything in the heavens above, the 
earth beneath, and the waters under the earth, 
but did not know the first thing concerning the 
tenets of Christianity as outlined in the Bible. 
This group of men began with real interest to 
study the Bible together, using as an outline 
one of the courses especially prepared for stu- 
dents. This interesting class has since ex- 
panded and grown into three classes, and the 
members are preparing a special Bible course 
for the use of students in their department. 

Outstanding Results of Bible Study 
Among Students 

The practical results of the college men's 
endeavor are variously apparent in nearly 
every institution in the United States and 
Canada. 

College Friendships 

This study is closely associated with the sym- 
pathetic forces of college friendship. An edu- 
cator who has given his life to students, in 



NORTH AMERICAN COLLEGE MEN 15 

speaking to some undergraduates recently, 
said: "The man who has gone through college 
and at the end of four years has not gained one 
true friend into whose face he can look and 
seriously say, 'I am thine/ and then hear the 
answer, 'Yes, friend, and I am thine,' that man 
has lost one of the chief assets of his college 
career." Charles Kingsley was once asked 
the secret of his success. He answered simply, 
"I had a friend." When Henry Drummond 
died, among his effects were found a great pile 
of small, soiled bits of paper containing scraps 
of experience, prayers, confessions — just half 
open windows into the lives of hundreds of 
men. These bits of paper had been given to 
him in connection with his meetings with stu- 
dents. George Adam Smith called Drum- 
mond's life a "healing confessional" into which 
multitudes of students had crept to tell the 
story of their souls, and then had gone away 
strengthened and refreshed. Every group 
formed for this study is another chance for the 
expression of such sympathies. 

It is indeed true that this uprising of stu- 
dents finds its secret not simply in discussions 
of abstract principles, but also in the deep 
appreciation of those vast opportunities and 



16 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

privileges of a great college brotherhood. The 
ideal of these little groups is well expressed in 
the words of Sam Walter Foss : 

Let me live in a house by the side of the road, 

Where the race of men go by — 
The men who are good and the men who are bad, 

As good and as bad as I. 
I would not sit in the scorner's seat, 

Or hurl the cynic's ban; — 
Let me live in a house by the side of the road 

And be a friend to man. 

Knowledge of the Bible 

The educational value of this study is in- 
estimable. Students have turned naturally and 
eagerly to a sensible and modern use of the 
Bible, knowing their ignorance of it. Presi- 
dent Charles F. Thwing of Western Reserve 
University published an article in the Century 
Magazine for May, 1900, in which he described 
the astonishing and lamentable results in cer- 
tain examinations of students in Bible subjects. 
It is true that, as a certain professor in New 
England has said, this student ignorance of the 
Bible has been widespread and "complete." 
Many instances of this limitation of biblical 
knowledge are still to be found. Indeed there 
is still only about one fifth of the student popu- 
lation of the institutions of higher learning in 



NORTH AMERICAN COLLEGE MEN 17 

the United States and Canada now engaged in 
this regular, voluntary and systematic study, 
and curriculum Bible study is reaching only a 
small proportion of American students. The 
movement for bringing the Bible to educated 
men is really just beginning. It is certain, 
however, that this present widespread ten- 
dency of college men to know the facts of the 
Bible will be increasingly evident in the realms 
of general education. An increasing use of 
the Bible in the regular courses offered in the 
college curriculum is already generally notice- 
able. An understanding of the best English 
literature will be a part of the profitable result- 
ant. Clear knowledge is being acquired con- 
cerning the meaning of the Christian religion. 
At one institution no fewer than three hundred 
students were studying the Bible in 1910 with 
the general topic, "What is Christianity?" A 
successful principle of real scientific study is 
being well grounded; namely, the endeavor to 
find out exactly what the Bible says. The 
securing of this actual knowledge is having a 
decided influence not simply in changing cer- 
tain opinions of students which have been too 
often based on second-hand testimony, preju- 
dice or inherited beliefs, but also in affording a 



18 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

clear and satisfying conviction relative to con- 
duct and religion. 

Thoughtful Habits 

In the last analysis, perhaps, the most abid- 
ing benefits of college life are those influences 
which are crystallized into habits during these 
formative days. The college man may forget 
his college enthusiasm and his emotions. Much 
of the "college spirit," whatever that may be, 
of undergraduate days evaporates in contact 
with the practical and serious world. Habits 
of these early days, however, are persistent and 
usually permanent in after life. These Bible 
studies now used by students are arranged with 
a view to assist college men in the formation 
of habits of daily Bible study and meditation. 
As a reminder of that which is most worth 
while, this habit has become valued by thou- 
sands of students. It is impressive to find one 
of the most representative leaders in an institu- 
tion in the Middle West rising at five o'clock 
in the morning in order to spend an hour a day 
in thoughtful meditation and study in pursu- 
ance of one of these student courses. His 
roommate said to me, "I attribute the splen- 
did equilibrium and balanced judgment of this 




A Group of Cadets with Their Leader, Culver Military 
Academy 



NORTH AMERICAN COLLEGE MEN 19 

busy man to this thoughtful habit which he has 
practiced for more than two years." 

If chosen men could never be alone 

In deep mid-silence open-doored with God 

No greatness ever had been dreamed or done. 

The testimonies which come each year from 
students of every type of institution — denomi- 
national, state, scientific and professional — to 
the value of systematic devotional Bible study, 
are impressive. These letters, written in the 
quiet of the students' rooms and from their 
very hearts, bring a weight of personal testi- 
mony to the close and vital relationship of 
Bible study to the daily lives of students. I 
give a few culled from the testimonies of a 
single college year. 

Purdue University. "When I think back 
to my decision to enter Christian work as a life 
work, I realize that it was very probably this 
habit of daily Bible study more than anything 
else that led me to such a decision. Since 
entering the work nothing has meant so much 
to me in the way of inspiration and the 
strengthening of purpose as has this habit. I 
have come to the point where I am afraid to 
enter a day's work without first having spent 
time with God and the Bible." 



20 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

New Hampshire. "I think the best thing 
it has done for me is that of getting me into the 
habit of praying more than once a day." 

University of Wisconsin. "I find that this 
daily study helps a man to constantly keep his 
highest ideals placed up before him." 

Indiana. "Individual Bible study has 
helped me to make my daily life nearer what I 
knew it ought to be. It has decreased my con- 
fidence in myself and increased my faith in 
God." 

A Massachusetts Medical Student. "The 
habit of keeping the morning watch, formed 
four years ago, I count my strongest asset. 
During the day at the medical school there is 
little to stimulate one's thoughts toward reli- 
gious matters. I like, therefore, at the begin- 
ning of each day to get into touch with the 
Good Physician." 

Pennsylvania. "We have a number of 
students in our school who follow Bible study 
regularly. It has been the means of checking 
inconsistencies in well-meaning fellows whom 
I know." 

Cornell University. "That daily Bible 
study work takes my mind from the 'grind' 



NORTH AMERICAN COLLEGE MEN 21 

side of my work, and turns my thoughts to the 
supreme reason for all of that work, is in itself 
sufficient reason for the observance of the quiet 
hour." 

An Ohio Man. "I have been studying Prov- 
erbs (taking a chapter a day) and it seems 
that each day's lesson has some bearing on the 
incidents of the day. I never before knew how 
closely the teachings could be applied if one 
makes it a point to look for the application." 

State College, Pa. "Daily Bible study has 
kept me close to God. It has been a constant 
reminder of my ideals, a guide in my daily life." 

From the State of Washington. "It has 
aided much in keeping my mind freed from 
impure thoughts which before were such a 
hindrance to my Christian life." 

University of Illinois. "In a talk with a 
man who has had a terrific fight with doubt, he 
told me that the only thing in the world that 
had saved him had been his practice of keeping 
the morning watch." 

A Connecticut Student. "After reading my 
Bible I can start the day in happy spirits, not 
only with a clear conscience but with a con- 
science powerful enough to help me overcome 



22 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

my temptations more easily. I feel that Bible 
study is one of the greatest helps toward lead- 
ing a thoroughly true Christian life." 

From Indiana. "After trying it the first 
year at school, I liked it so well that I kept it 
up all summer, and have ever since. During 
these five years I have spent the summer often 
in very ungodly surroundings, and there I 
found my Bible study a great bulwark. Last 
summer I was on a Western ranch, forty miles 
from any church services and in the midst of 
rough, hard men. I have gone out on the cliffs 
and mountains in the mornings and kept my 
morning watch in prayer and study of my 
books which I always kept with me ; then going 
back among the men I felt an added strength 
and firmness that stood me in good stead. 
The men realized this and some of them would 
never swear or use rough language before me. 
And not the least of the many benefits is the 
knowledge of the Bible which I have acquired. 
I have really been surprised at what I have 
been able to learn in the five years." 

Ohio. "I think that I am not putting it too 
strongly when I say that through Bible study 
I have been converted and led to Christ. I 
began to read the Bible prayerfully, previous 



NORTH AMERICAN COLLEGE MEN 23 

to my conversion, although not daily, yet I 
know that through this means I was convinced 
and persuaded to lead a Christian life." 

Life in Its True Perspective 

To acquire the faculty of seeing things in 
right perspective is a real ideal for college life, 
and here study of the Bible is of use. Recently 
the students of Japan, in a large conference, 
sent a cable message to a student conference in 
the United States which read, "Japan leading 
the Orient, but whither?" Frederick Paulsen 
in his "Introduction to Philosophy" presents 
the figure of a traveler coming down from a 
high mountain. At the base of the mountain 
he is lost for a time in the foothills, the moun- 
tain is temporarily obscured from view. 
Finally he moves away from the foothills, out 
into the plain. Again the great mountain re- 
turns to his vision and becomes more clearly 
outlined as he leaves the smaller hills farther 
in the distance. There is danger in our modern 
life that the student will become so occupied 
with small things that he will lose sight of the 
great spiritual values. Lord Beaconsfield 
said, "The man who is formidable is the man 
of one desire." It is no small task, however, 



24 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

for college men to subordinate desire to desire 
according to a true standard of relative urgency 
and importance. There is such a thing as 
energy without liberty, efficiency without real 
power. There is a special demand among stu- 
dents for that "peace of mood" which makes 
possible the seeing of life whole. The ability 
to take one's latitude and longitude, the fine 
art of being able to accent one's life correctly, 
the power to deal with tendencies before they 
become hardened into conditions — these are 
some of the invisible accompaniments of this 
modern movement for Bible study among col- 
lege men. The truth of Wordsworth is very 
real for college men in these times. 

The world is too much with us, late and soon, 
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers. 

This perspective of real values is being 
gained by students through a quest for great 
principles in the Bible, studying for a whole 
year certain large topics in books or characters. 
It is one thing to commit to memory certain 
verses or passages ; it is quite another to study 
the Bible in the great sweep of its universal 
principles and personalities. Students are 
learning to discriminate, to analyze, to discover 
the central meaning of Bible truth. There has 



NORTH AMERICAN COLLEGE MEN 25 

too often been a tendency to confine Bible 
study to the securing of a chain of mottoes or 
proof texts taken from their context. But our 
times call, not so much for formulas and 
creeds, as for clear ideas in relation to practical 
living. 

Yet while it is true that doctrinal discussions 
are less popular among thoughtful men to- 
day, it is also true that there is a very earnest 
search on the part of students for those leaders 
who are able to interpret religion in the vernac- 
ular of the twentieth century. Mr. Chan Po 
Ling, a very representative scholar and teacher 
of the city of Tientsin, China, recently accepted 
Christianity. He expressed to me his ambition 
to spend several years in becoming so proficient 
in the knowledge of the elements of Christian- 
ity, through the study of the Bible, that he 
might be able to translate into the Chinese 
language the central meaning of the Christian 
religion. 

It is doubtful whether there was ever a 
greater demand than at present for truth that 
contributes to reality in life and service. Jus- 
tice Charles E. Hughes of the United States 
Supreme Court, speaking to a company of 
men interested in this work, said : "As students 



26 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

come down to New York City the questions 
which we place before them are not simply, 
'What is your college?' or 'What is your na- 
tionality?' or 'To what church do you belong?' 
The questions of greater moment today are: 
'Will you lie?' 'Will you steal?' 'Can we trust 
you utterly?' " 

This tendency of student life of North 
America to go directly to the heart of the great 
truths is manifest in the method and spirit of 
this study of the Bible. In many institutions 
these small groups of men are discussing ques- 
tions like these : "What is the true test of reli- 
gion?" "What is the character of God as re- 
vealed in the Bible?" "What is the teaching of 
Christianity in relation to the use of wealth?" 
"What is the nature and the consequence of 
sin?" "How can we assist in bringing about 
higher moral standards in this institution?" 

College Ethics 

The moral and ethical life of college com- 
munities is being invariably affected wherever 
this practical study is introduced. Probably 
in no environment is sham and pretense more 
quickly and unerringly detected than among 
college men. The influence of the Bible, there- 



NORTH AMERICAN COLLEGE MEN 27 

fore, which has always brought into individual 
lives the element of reality, is counted supreme- 
ly valuable here. 

Recently a certain athletic leader was walk- 
ing across the campus of a state university 
when a bystander, who was watching him, said 
to one of the students, "What is the reason for 
the unquestioned leadership of that man among 
these three thousand college men?" The stu- 
dent thought for a moment and replied: "It 
is not simply because he is a great athlete, nor 
is it because of his social and intellectual leader- 
ship; but I reckon we all stand for that stu- 
dent in this university because we are dead sure 
he is the real thing." At West Point a few 
years ago some one asked the question, "What 
is a Christian?" One of the men in the group 
replied instantly, "Oscar Westover." To that 
student, at least, Christianity was not a creed, 
but a personality ; not a method, but a man. A 
college man told me that the greatest influence 
which he carried away from his four years in 
college was the vision of something he saw in 
his old college president's face at a time when 
the president was returning to his home after 
the death of his daughter. ISTo stronger argu- 
ment is needed for the value of the study of the 



28 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

Bible than the presentation of the plain fact 
that it brings about this genuineness of char- 
acter to which college men pay homage. 

Already the power of this study is being felt 
in decisions at college as to life work. In its 
presentation of wide, fascinating fields of 
knowledge in the study of the great careers of 
the pioneers of civilization, it is assisting stu- 
dents to right vocational plans. It was re- 
ported that one hundred and fifty students at 
Yale in 1910-11 had the benefit of the volun- 
tary Bible classes led by Professor Henry B. 
Wright, the general subject of the study being 
"The Win of God and a Man's Life Work." 
The influence upon the will which the Bible has 
always exerted is peculiarly important as a 
corrective of the natural tendency to an easy- 
going, drifting purpose attendant upon stu- 
dent life. Mr. Huxley once said that the true 
value of all education lies in its power to make 
a man do the thing he ought to do when it ought 
to be done, regardless of whether he feels like 
doing it or not. 

As a force for creating moral reserve, this 
uprising is generally gratifying. The coach 
of one of our large athletic teams said recently 
that in his judgment there was a time in every 



NORTH AMERICAN COLLEGE MEN 29 

great football game when the decisive factor of 
success or failure was physical reserve. A 
moment occurred when science and technical 
skill were quite powerless, and only that physi- 
cal reserve which had been stored up through 
long months of practice decided the issue. In 
other words, no regiment in face of the enemy 
can make up for lack of discipline on the 
parade ground. In 1909-10 9,089 men were 
reported as practicing daily habits of study and 
meditation in connection with this movement. 
One cannot but believe that these present daily 
habits of thousands of college students are to 
be strikingly effective in producing moral and 
spiritual reserve in the great crises of after life. 

Serviceableness 

One of the most practical features of this 
enterprise lies in the fact that the Bible is 
being transferred from the region of dogmatic 
and theological conceptions to the realm of real 
life. The book is being rediscovered, not 
simply as a storehouse of mysterious and 
sacred information, but as a means leading to 
successful and normal human service. The 
Bible is taking its place among the serviceable 
books of the world. It is proving itself to be 



30 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

the first book for conduct. A student coming 
out of one of these Bible groups was recently 
overheard to say to a friend, "I feel as though 
I had much to do in the world." 

The Bible is something more to college men 
than a book of comfort and a solace for the 
"sick and sorry." Furthermore, it is not con- 
sidered enough to be able to say that five hun- 
dred men are enrolled in Bible groups of a cer- 
tain institution or that twelve million Bibles 
were distributed in 1908 by Bible societies, or 
that this Book has been translated into more 
than five hundred languages and dialects. It 
is not the final test of its value that a compara- 
tively few scholars in Germany and the United 
States and Canada have found the vast intel- 
lectual and literary riches of this Book. A 
greater question is now being asked and an- 
swered by educators and students, namely: 
How can educated men discover the Bible as 
a means to life service? This utilitarian view 
makes Bible study an uplifting force in the 
college world. Students are going out from 
these Bible groups to various kinds of social 
service through the community. One of the 
prominent institutions in the Far West was 
virtually revolutionized in its moral sentiment 



NORTH AMERICAN COLLEGE MEN 31 

through the influence of one of these small 
bands of students who gathered weekly to dis- 
cuss some of the problems of college life. 

Social Service 

At the State Bible Study Institute in Michi- 
gan in the fall of 1910, it developed that the 
Bible study work in two or three of the state 
colleges was definitely related to the local 
town, either through the furnishing of Sunday 
school teachers or by boys' club work. A most 
striking instance of social service in connection 
with the Bible study work is found at Prince- 
ton. This work has been carried on with in- 
creased efficiency during the present year. 
The following is a report which a leader of the 
work there gave at the close of last college 
year: 

"The 'Extension Work' of the Bible groups 
may now be considered a fixed feature of the 
Princeton Bible group program. At least 
twenty groups have been doing more or less 
effective work in Princeton, in the surrounding 
country settlements, in Trenton and in New 
York. Four or five groups in Trenton and 
two in New York City have done work in con- 
nection with settlement houses, the Salvation 



32 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

Army and the Young Men's Christian Asso- 
ciation, visiting the sick and disabled, conduct- 
ing boys' clubs and Sunday school classes, and 
arranging for lectures and entertainments. 

"At least six new rural communities have 
been visited regularly by the men ; and lectures 
by members of the faculty, as well as enter- 
tainments by the students, have made it possi- 
ble to form boys' clubs of from fifteen to 
twenty boys in each place. These clubs are 
under the constant direction of the Bible group 
men who trained the members for a track meet 
held under the auspices of the Philadelphian 
Society, on Brokaw Field at Princeton. 
About fifteen clubs entered the meet, which 
presented both 'junior' and 'senior' events, and 
for which both club and individual prizes were 
offered. 

"Schoolhouses have been found to be good 
centers for this work in purely rural districts. 

"This plan has several unique merits. It 
unites the faculty and students in a common 
Christian work. It enlists the energies of more 
men than where individuals alone are made 
responsible. It brings the university in touch 
with its environment, and trains the members 
of the university body in some of the principles 



NORTH AMERICAN COLLEGE MEN S3 

of good citizenship. It does for these rural 
communities what they are not able to do for 
themselves and thus quickens their life without 
making them dependent in things which they 
themselves should undertake. It is awakening 
the students' interest in the rural problems of 
our country. Finally, it keeps the Bible group 
from becoming theoretical and holds it to- 
gether by means of work in a way that mere 
study never does. It also keeps in touch with 
Bible study men who would not otherwise 
maintain their interest." 

The need for just this kind of work is press- 
ing in every college community, and while it 
may not always be possible to develop it with 
the fullness with which it has been done at 
Princeton, the reports from different sections 
show that this need is being increasingly felt by 
college Bible study groups and that the next 
years will see a large development of this type 
of service through Bible studies. 



CHAPTER TWO 
THE STUDENTS OF INDIA AND BIBLE STUDY 



Can it be true the grace He is declaring? 
O let us trust Him, for His words are fair. 
Man, what is this? and why art thou despairing? 
God shall forgive thee all but thy despair. 

The Bible has such power for teaching righteousness that 
even to those who come to it with all sorts of false notions 
about the God of the Bible, it yet teaches righteousness, and 
fills them with the love of it; how much more those who come 
to it with a true notion about the God of the Bible. — Matthew 
Arnold. 

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and light unto my path. 
— Psalm cxix. 105. 

This Book, this holy Book, on every line 
Marked with the seal of high divinity, 
On every leaf bedewed with drops of love 
Divine, and with the eternal heraldry 
And signature of God Almighty stamped 
From first to last ; this ray of sacred light, 
This lamp from off the everlasting throne, 
Mercy took down, and in the night of Time 
Stood, casting on the dark her gracious bow; 
And evermore beseeching men with tears, 
And earnest sighs, to read, believe, and live. 

— Robert Pollok. 

David Livingstone, when nine years old, learned and repeated 
the 119th Psalm. His pastor gave him as a reward a New Tes- 
tament. Livingstone died on his knees. The light reflected 
from his countenance upon the black face of Africa was the 
greatest Christian message which the Dark Continent has yet 
received. 



CHAPTER TWO 

THE STUDENTS OF INDIA AND 
BIBLE STUDY 

A New Attitude 

Memorable among the vivid impressions of 
a recent visit which I made to the students of 
the East is a scene in the large government uni- 
versity in the city of Lahore, in Northern 
India. An audience of five hundred Hindu, 
Mohammedan, and Parsee students had gath- 
ered to debate a critical question in educational 
circles: "Resolved, that religious education 
should be inaugurated in the government 
schools of India." Seated upon the platform 
were English professors and Brahman 
teachers, with some adherents of the reform 
movements of the Arya and Brahmo-Samaj. 
No one could have looked into the faces of 
those students, keenly alert and highly intelli- 
gent, without feeling that in such men resides 
the inherent and potential hope of the new 
India. 



38 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

I had been asked to join with a Mohamme- 
dan student in leading the affirmative side of 
the debate. It was surprising to note the lack 
of interest shown in the negative. In short, 
the high-caste Brahman who led the negative 
side whispered to me before rising that he 
believed in our side of the question, and was 
speaking only in order to make the debate pos- 
sible. When my colleague, the Mohammedan 
student, cried out in great earnestness, "We 
are not satisfied to be graduated from these 
government schools merely as intellectual ex- 
perts: we demand an education in religion," 
the assembly of students rose to their feet and 
greeted the sentiment with applause that fairly 
shook the building. 

I said to a Hindu professor who sat by me, 
"What is the reason for this unaccountable 
feeling which seems to be sweeping the convic- 
tions of these college men?" 

In reply, he explained to me that the edu- 
cated men of India, in their awakening to new 
responsibility for individual, social, and politi- 
cal reform were grasping with almost feverish 
zeal every influence which had helped to shape 
the progressive civilizations of the West. 
Furthermore, he added: "You must remember 



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INDIA AND BIBLE STUDY 39 

that the students of India have inherited a 
religious consciousness. They know the Bible 
as thoroughly, if not more thoroughly, than 
any sacred book of Hinduism. They need only 
leadership to make this movement for the 
intelligent study of the English Bible one of 
the most popular and profitable branches of 
Indian education." 

This Hindu teacher struck the keynote of 
India's need when he emphasized the necessity 
for leadership. 

College Leadership in India 

Mr. John R. Mott, secretary of the World's 
Student Christian Federation, has said, "The 
schools teach the teachers, preach to the 
preachers, and govern the governors." Prob- 
ably this remark is truer of India at present 
than of any other nation. The college men are 
decisive factors in any movement which has to 
do with government, industry, education or 
religion. The influence of the students of the 
five great government schools in the cities of 
Madras, Calcutta, Allahabad, Lahore and 
Bombay is out of all proportion to their num- 
ber. In fact, numbers count much less in 
India than almost anywhere else in the world. 



40 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

One trained student leader of strong moral 
fiber will counteract the evil force of thousands 
of illiterate, thoughtless, and vicious men. 

Furthermore, in India, as in Russia, the 
students are the leading reactionaries. The 
"unrest of India" is only another term for the 
awakening of the student classes. Through 
the streets of the cities in the province of 
Bengal, as well as in the towns of the Bombay 
district, one may hear repeatedly the signifi- 
cant cry, "Bande, Mataraml 33 (Hail, Mother- 
land). It is the passionate cry for national 
leadership on the part of educated men. 

A new and great hope for India exists in the 
fact that the students of the Empire are rally- 
ing to this world movement for the practical 
and intelligent study of the English Bible. 
In the student hostels or dormitories, which 
are being rapidly constructed about the large 
universities, bands of Indian students are 
gathering for this discussiohal study in a fash- 
ion similar to that carried on in the college 
fraternities and clubs of the United States and 
Canada. An experienced leader at the Uni- 
versity of Madras said that it would be quite 
possible to engage as many men in the practi- 
cal study of the Bible in that city as* were 



INDIA AND BIBLE STUDY 41 

represented in the membership of these stu- 
dent hostels. 

Copyright, 1910, by The Century Co. 



Chart of Madras, India 

The black dots indicate the number of Bible classes 
in different parts of the city and suburbs 

It might be difficult to find a more fitting 
means for the Eastern student to discover the 
principles of Western religion than through 
these informal groups for Bible study. The 
style of the subject-matter is Oriental, and the 
Indian student is inclined to reach all his con- 
clusions by the processes of Eastern thought. 
The informal groups meet the national love for 
argument and serious philosophical conversa- 



42 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

tion. Dr. H. H. Mann, who is at the head of 
a large scientific school in Poona, told me that 
his students usually reach their scientific 
views in a roundabout way, often through the 
medium of speculation and religion. 

Indeed, little knots of Indian and Ceylonese 
students may be seen in any college community 
strolling off, hand in hand, discussing earnestly 
some metaphysical or religious question. 
These men join readily in small classes for dis- 
cussion of the principles of religion and their 
application to the life and practical affairs of 
their country. 

Development of Individuality 

Tennyson's words have been true in India 
for three thousand years : 

The individual withers, and the world is more and more. 

India has systematically suppressed the 
individual. Collectivism in family and state 
has dominated her. The Indian student has 
inherited a slavery to a social and patriarchal 
system which has tended to de-individualize 
him. This emphasis upon uniformity of type 
has produced a fixity and a conservatism which 
until very recently have been well-nigh im- 



Copyright, 1910, by The Century Co. 




A Bible Class at Colombo, Ceylon, out for a Study Session in the Open 



INDIA AND BIBLE STUDY 43 

pregnable. India has gloried in her exclusive- 
ness, in her annihilation of public spirit defy- 
ing all sudden transformation. The words of 
William Watson, although less true of the 
new India, emphasize this spirit of indiffer- 
ence: 

The brooding Mother of the unfilial world 

Recumbent on her own antiquity, 

Aloof from our mutation and unrest, 

Alien to our achievements and desires, 

Too proud alike for protest or assent 

When new thoughts thunder at her mossy door ; 

Another brain dreaming another dream, 

Another heart recalling other loves, 

Too gray and grave for our adventurous hopes, 

For our precipitate pleasures too august; 

And in majestic taciturnity 

Refraining her illimitable scorn. 

But although India's march has always been 
a slow march, and her leaders have been few, 
a new day seems to be dawning for the devel- 
opment of individual qualities. It would be 
difficult to realize what would happen in India 
today if a few leaders of great caliber, or even 
one great national personality, were to be 
raised up "to see life steadily and to see it 
whole," and then with practical aggressiveness 
to lead this three-hundred-million host toward 
unity and progressive civilization. 



44 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

This student activity, promoted largely by 
the Young Men's Christian Associations, is 
bending its chief effort to the development of 
native college leaders. In short, the entire 
enterprise is at present waiting only for the 
training of men capable of becoming teachers 
and organizers. An able worker in Madras 
said to me, "If I could have one strong leader 
to give his time to this matter, we could have 
almost at once one thousand Indian students 
studying the English Bible in the city of 
Madras." There are at present two hundred 
students studying in groups similar to the plan 
prevailing in the American and British uni- 
versities, in various hostels and student meet- 
ing-places of that city. Normal classes for the 
training of men are conducted in the great 
educational cities. Biblical scholars from the 
schools are training the Indian students to 
organize and to guide their fellows in small 
discussional groups, with the triple view of 
education, character and service. 

The Bible in English 

To learn English is a craze in the East to- 
day. It is the open door into government posi- 
tion, the acme of student ambition in India. 



INDIA AND BIBLE STUDY 45 

It is often a surprise to Westerners to find 
that the lectures in government colleges in 
India are delivered in English. It was my 
privilege to speak in most of the great student 
centers in the Indian Empire, and in no case 
was I asked to use an interpreter. Indeed, it 
is an insult to infer that an educated Hindu 
or Mohammedan does not understand English. 

This pride of language was amusingly dis- 
played at one of our student meetings. It is 
a habit in some cities for men to go out and 
come in during lectures, according to their 
own sweet will. The confusion which this 
moving about occasions is a matter of utter 
disregard to them. A veteran educator who 
lectures much in the East had learned how to 
remedy this annoyance. At the very begin- 
ning of the meeting he announced in a bold 
voice that all students who did not understand 
English might feel free to go out at any time. 
The result was gratifying and inevitable. 
Every student remained steadfastly in his seat, 
feigning great interest, even if he had it not, 
until the very end of the lecture. 

The Bible is studied in English by Indian 
university students. This is true of both curric- 
ulum Bible study, which usually exists daily 



46 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

in the Christian colleges, and also in the small 
voluntary classes held in clubs and hostels. 
While this book has been translated into the 
majority of the four hundred and five or more 
separate languages and dialects of India, col- 
lege men usually choose the English version. 
Indeed, many students enter the Bible classes 
with the sole object of learning to read and 
speak better English. The need of a right 
combination of language and biblical facts is 
as apparent in the case of these students as 
we sometimes find it in the West. A teacher 
in Forman Christian College in Northern 
India asked in an examination paper the ques- 
tion, "Describe the incident of the wise and 
foolish virgins as narrated in the New Testa- 
ment." A Mohammedan student wrote the 
following answer: 

It is thus related that there were ten virgins who 
aspired to marry a lover of them. One day the arrival 
of the husband from his home to a certain place was 
announced to take place on a fixed day at midnight. 
Then all the virgins took their respective candles, but 
only five of them took oil with them, and set out to the 
rendezvous. When the lover arrived there at the fixed 
time at midnight, the virgins who had oil with them 
lighted their candles, while the other virgins vainly tried 
to light theirs because they had no oil. The hopeless 



INDIA AND BIBLE STUDY 47 

girls asked the companion virgins for oil, but their re- 
quest not being entertained, they went to the bazaar to 
buy oil. On their return the door of the house was shut, 
and the lover had married the five wise virgins that had 
brought oil with their candles. The poor remnants 
knocked at the door, but the lover said, "I know not who 
you are." 

This incident reveals not only the influence 
of Mohammedan doctrine regarding the social 
system, but also the honest attempt by stu- 
dents to become proficient in the use of the 
English Bible. Truly, when one appreciates 
that the English edition is being read more 
faithfully by great numbers of students of 
Hindustan than any of the sacred Vedas, it 
helps to explain the surprise of foreigners in 
hearing excellent English fall from the lips 
of college men in the large Indian universities. 

Caste System 

The Bible which has been touching the life 
of students through many different agencies 
is doing much to destroy the fearful system of 
caste which for centuries has blocked the prog- 
ress of India. Hinduism has furnished to 
India a religion of intellectual aristocracy to 
be acquired only by the elect who have time for 



48 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

reflection and for study. The Brahman is 
still saluted in the street as "great king." His 
caste is respected as a limited company having 
patents in heaven. This kind of aristocracy, 
like most other kinds, has had a tendency to 
degrade the people. A double standard has 
arisen, one for the people and another for the 
philosophers. Intellectual Hinduism has not 
satisfied the eternal human longing for wor- 
ship. Idolatrous heathenism, therefore, of the 
most revolting type has existed side by side 
with philosophic idealism. If it is true that 
the summit of the pyramid of Hindu religion 
is bathed by the air of the ideal, it is also true 
that its foundation is surrounded with a deal 
of human miasma. One needs only to sail 
down the Ganges River past Benares any 
morning in the year to behold such examples 
of superstition and degrading rites as would be 
conclusive evidence against at least the results 
of the Hindu social organization. 

The students of the East are learning from 
the Bible the principles of Christian equality 
and democracy which are slowly but surely 
undermining the great oligarchic caste influ- 
ence. Mr. G. Sherwood Eddy, who has been 
working for many years among the students of 



INDIA AND BIBLE STUDY 49 

India, speaking of the disintegration of the 
caste system, described having seen in the city 
of Madras one hundred students, about 
equally divided among Brahmans, Mohamme- 
dans and Christians, representing high and 
low grades of society, boldly dining together, 
with no man daring to put them out of caste. 

A professor in one of the cities which I 
visited invited a number of Bible students to 
his home for a social evening. There were 
present both Hindu and Mohammedan uni- 
versity men. When refreshments were served, 
the professor prepared two tables, in accord- 
ance with the usual custom, since the Hindu 
students were not expected to touch food 
which had been offered to those not of their 
own faith. It chanced that the Hindu stu- 
dents ate all of their cakes, and, being still 
hungry, inadvertently remarked to their host 
that they would not object to a second helping. 
After investigation, the professor found that 
all the cakes had been served; whereupon the 
Hindu students, perceiving that there were 
still refreshments remaining upon the tables 
where the Mohammedan young men had been 
eating, suggested that the Mohammedans' 
cakes would be quite satisfactory. The prof es- 



50 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

sor, astonished, said, "But you are Hindus." 
The answer came from a bright-faced Brah- 
man of high social position, "We have changed 
our view somewhat in relation to this matter 
as we have studied together the principles of 
the Founder of Christianity concerning His 
social order." 

I was not a little surprised and impressed 
when an Indian scholar, to whom I had applied 
for the objective of present-day caste tenden- 
cies of educated men in the East, replied in 
the following significant verse : 

Strike hands, my brother-man! 

'T is yours with voice, and act, and pen, 

'T is yours to paint the morning red, 

That ushers in the grander day; 

So may each unjust bond be broke, 

Each toiler find a fit reward, 

And Life sound forth a truer chord. 

The Awakening of Conscience 

An old, white-haired Brahman came to me 
in Calcutta, after a public meeting of students, 
and said, "Is 'stir the conscience' an intelli- 
gible use of English?" I assured him that it 
was. He replied: "India's conscience has 
been dead for centuries, at least along certain 
lines. The Bible will stir the conscience of 
India." 




Hindu Worship on the Ganges 



INDIA AND BIBLE STUDY 51 

In general the men in the institutions of 
higher learning in India are no longer idol 
worshipers. They merely tolerate the super- 
stitious rites at Benares. Indeed one gets the 
impression that a large number of the Ganges 
devotees do not really believe in their own 
ceremonies. Many of these adherents of Hin- 
duism assume a religious pose for the photog- 
rapher or for revenue only. I paid a man a 
stipend that he might appear to be an example 
of piety by lying upon a bed of sharp spikes. 
There is critical concern on all sides for the 
awakening of a keen ethical sense in distinc- 
tions of right and wrong. Dr. John P. Jones 
affirms that "the root of India's present in- 
capability for self-government is not intellec- 
tual, but social and moral." Indeed no self- 
government worthy of the name can possibly 
result until the character of India becomes firm 
and steady enough for a foundation. There is 
a feeling among many that the greatest use 
of the Bible in the East is along the line of an 
awakening of personal, moral responsibility, 
for Herbert Spencer's words are applicable 
here, "Institutions are dependent on character; 
and, however changed in their superficial 



52 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

aspects, cannot be changed in their essential 
natures faster than character changes." 

The awakening of India's conscientious 
nature is revealed in a new attitude toward 
social and domestic reform, especially toward 
marriage. Until comparatively recently it has 
been impossible to obtain a serious hearing be- 
fore a student body upon questions concerning 
the home, so skeptical have been these men as 
to the binding character of moral laws relating 
to social conduct. Even now, to be sure, 
virtually all the students one addresses in the 
colleges are married, but the age of marriage 
is gradually being set further along, and while 
students are betrothed at an early age, the edu- 
cated Indians are becoming more and more 
averse to the early marriages of their sons and 
daughters. 

This change of the accent of religion from 
ceremonial to morals and conduct is affecting 
not simply the physical life of students, but its 
bearing is seen directly in a most timely fash- 
ion in business, politics, and the general trust- 
worthiness of men of affairs. Mark Twain, 
speaking of truth-telling, said : 

I never could keep a promise. I do not blame myself 
for this weakness, because the fault must lie in my physi- 



INDIA AND BIBLE STUDY 53 

cal organization. It is likely that such a very liberal 
amount of space was given to the organ which enables 
me to make promises that the organ which should en- 
able me to keep them was crowded out. But I grieve 
not. I like no half-way things. I had rather have one 
faculty nobly developed than two faculties of mere 
ordinary capacity. 

Those who have had to do business with cer- 
tain types of people in the East might be in- 
clined to place some of these persons in Mr. 
Clemens's category of successful specialists. 

But it is in this very commonplace but im- 
portant realm of truth-telling, self-control, 
honesty and personal righteousness, that 
India looks for emancipation through the 
Christian's Bible, Christian education, and the 
Christian's sacrifice. The "carrier doves of 
commerce," which now spread their wings over 
every ocean and inland sea of Asia, must leave 
something better in the East than the germs 
of contagious social ills and vulgar material- 
ism, otherwise the present unrest of the Indian 
may well cause grave alarm. 

Something very definite is required, and 
this practical plan to get together groups of 
thinking men throughout the country to study 
with serious sense of obligation the high laws 



54 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

and invigorating ideals of the Bible, and then 
to send them out to fulfill their new aspira- 
tions in alleviating the conditions of their 
people, constitutes one tangible and sane 
method by which to hasten India's real and 
deepest reform. 

Irrigation plans will help. Technical train- 
ing must come. The palliative measures of the 
English government will do much. The forces 
are indispensable which make for new learn- 
ing — great railroad systems, unexcelled Brit- 
ish justice, and modern scientific improve- 
ments ; but in the East, as in the West, emanci- 
pation of mind and body without the mastery 
of soul is only half freedom. Indeed it is too 
often "poking the fire from the top." With 
the "Aryan brown" as with the Anglo-Saxon 
the kingdom of God is within, and final judg- 
ment of any people must be made in accord- 
ance to what the individuals of that nation are 
in themselves, and according to the moral and 
religious restraints which they put upon them- 
selves. 

An Oxford man who was conducting a most 
profitable work for students in connection with 
government college hostels at Allahabad, told 
me of a Hindu student with whom he had been 



INDIA AND BIBLE STUDY 55 

privately reading the Bible for over a year. 
He had not mentioned to the student the sub- 
ject of his personal acceptance of Christianity. 
He had noticed, however, certain changes in 
the student's life. At the beginning of the 
second year of study, he asked his Hindu 
scholar what impression he had gained from 
his reading. He answered, "The influence I 
have gained is not one of thought merely, it 
has changed my life and my life work." 

Service to Indian Society 

The supreme need of India at present is 
self-forgetfulness in a great service. 

Her conservatism and uniqueness have exist- 
ed in a proud Oriental quietism. She has been 
satisfied to live in her past. In Matthew 
Arnold's words, 

The East bowed low before the blast, 

In patient, deep disdain; 
She let the legions thunder past, 

And plunged in thought again. 

For thirty centuries India has been turning 
her gaze into her own soul. Religion has been 
spent upon itself. Contemplation rather than 
action has been the objective. In short, relig- 



56 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

ion in India has been a disease ; another name 
for egoism. Men's souls have become burdens 
to them, as usually happens with those per- 
sons who give disproportionate attention to 
self-examination and introspective, spiritual 
self- development. 

India's hope today is in positive participa- 
tion in great altruistic enterprises. She needs 
to make her religious and spiritual develop- 
ment a product, or a by-product, of her life of 
service. Christianity must take to her a living 
faith, a stimulus to a life of deeds. Brahman- 
ism with its doctrines has swept India too far 
out into an indefinite sea of mystical meta- 
physics to leave her with much practical stand- 
ing-ground for everyday life. This movement 
for Bible study is certain to bring to thinking 
men the truth that neither books, ceremonies, 
nor men can stand before serviceableness. 
Even now the student life of India is rapidly 
evolving from the air of the monastery into 
the atmosphere of a community, where human 
life and human service are touched with a new 
moral enthusiasm. 

The fact that talk divides but work unites 
is dawning upon the student mind of India. 
That great army called the Omedwar (hope- 



INDIA AND BIBLE STUDY 57 

fills) who fail to receive official positions in the 
government, passing their time in idleness, 
have become a national menace. Indeed, stu- 
dent education may be a bane rather than a 
blessing in the East, if it is not speedily 
attached to altruistic and definite tasks. 

In the city of Calcutta during a series of 
religious lectures, conducted a few months ago 
by a Yale graduate, who is accomplishing a 
great mission in Southern India, great crowds 
of students listened for hours to the exposition 
and interpretation of the Christian religion. 
At the close of one student session three hun- 
dred college men, representing for the most 
part the higher classes, signified their desire 
actively to associate themselves with a life of 
Christian service and a large proportion agreed 
to investigate the Christian Scriptures. 

Cosmopolitan Interest 

Gladstone said that the universities of the 
Middle Ages established a telegraph of the 
mind. For centuries Indian students, in their 
supreme self-content, have been shut away 
from the mental telegraphy of the student 
world. The universal element of power in the 
Bible, and the world federation of college men 



58 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

for its study, are inducing the college men of 
the East to lift their eyes to other student na- 
tions for ideas and ideals, for precedents and 
for methods. The students of India are feel- 
ing for the first time this college comradeship, 
based upon the solid ground of common ambi- 
tion toward high ideals and large thoughts for 
the betterment of humanity. It is said that 
there is a tacit understanding between old 
soldiers who have fought on the same battle- 
field. One feels an intellectual understanding, 
which challenges analysis, when one meets 
with the students of Bombay and Calcutta, as 
truly as one senses it in Tokyo, Peking, 
London or New York. 



CHAPTER THREE 
BIBLE STUDY IN EASTERN ASIA 



Christianity was first introduced among the Japanese in 
1549, by Francis Xavier, and for a time Christianity spread 
considerably among the people. But soon, through the meddling 
of Jesuits, there arose very serious quarrels and disturbances, 
and at last many Christians were cruelly put to death. Perse- 
cutions went on more or less for a long period of time; almost 
all the remaining Christians in Japan were murdered; and in 
1637 Japan was closed "for ever" to foreigners and to Chris- 
tianity. There was a public inscription put up to the effect 
that anybody who taught the "vile Jesus doctrine," as it was 
called, should be executed. Who was it who reintroduced 
Christianity into Japan? It was a Japanese nobleman. One 
day he saw in the Bay of Yeddo something floating on the water 
which proved to be a Bible. He did not, however, know what 
it was, but was told that it was a book which had dropped 
from some English or American vessel. He became interested 
in it and anxious to know more about it. He then sent it to 
Shanghai to have it interpreted for him. His study of the truth 
was sanctified to him; he was converted and in 1857 was the 
first Japanese who was baptized. Two others were baptized 
with him, and from that time Christianity has been a living and 
growing power in the Empire. The first great impulse was 
given by that single Bible. — Dean Farrar. 

For the word of God is living, and active, and sharper than 
any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul 
and spirit, of both j oints and marrow, and quick to discern the 
thoughts and intents of the heart. — Hebrews iv. 12, 13. 

Underlying all other conditions are the religious conditions of 
a country. — Lafcadio Hearn. 

He that loseth his life for my sake shall find it. — Matthew 



CHAPTER THREE 
BIBLE STUDY IN EASTERN ASIA 

Characteristics of Bible Awakening 

Bible Interest in Japan 

On April 5, 1909, it was my privilege to be 
present in a group of Japanese teachers who 
were meeting near the shore of one of the 
southern islands that form the Empire of 
Japan. We were discussing the influence of 
the Bible upon the leading men of the Mikado's 
Empire. Suddenly one of the professors 
pointed toward the sea and said: "At those 
rocks yonder occurred an important event in 
the illumination of Japan. It happened many 
years ago when the torn leaves of an English 
Bible floated from a British ship, and were 
picked up and translated into the Japanese 
language. Knowledge of the Bible has spread 
so widely since that event that it would be diffi- 
cult today to find a great leader in our Empire 
who has not been directly influenced by it." 

Indeed, in Japan, as well as in India, I 
found that the Bible had a place of real inter- 
est among educated men. Bible study on the 



62 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

part of students especially was stimulated by 
the engagement of an able Japanese educator 
and experienced college leader, Mr. N. Niwa, 
to give a year's time to the promotion of Bible 
interests among students and other classes of 
young men. In 1909-10 there were 1,900 col- 
lege men enrolled in voluntary Bible classes 
in Japan, and 2,100 men enrolled in required 
or curriculum Bible study courses. If stu- 
dents included in high schools were added, the 
total would be 4,000 young men, and 600 
young women students in voluntary Bible 
classes in the Empire. 

The first course for Bible study in small 
groups has just been printed in Japanese, the 
author being an able seminary professor, Mr. 
Y. Chiba, a graduate of Rochester Theological 
Seminary and a teacher in the Theological 
School at Fukuoka, Japan. This outline is 
based upon a series of studies by Professor 
Jeremiah W. Jenks of Cornell University 
entitled, "The Social Significance of the 
Teachings of Jesus," and is being eagerly fol- 
lowed by Japanese students of all classes, from 
the men at the Imperial University of Tokyo 
to preparatory school students, which latter 
class number 148,000 in Japan. 



THE BIBLE IN THE FAR EAST 63 

Under the auspices of the National Young 
Men's Christian Union of Japan, a National 
Advisory Council of scholars has been ap- 
pointed to have general charge of the prepara- 
tion of biblical literature and the guidance of 
this new movement among thinking Japanese. 

A New Bible Study Tendency 

As the lecture method has been the usual 
way of teaching among Oriental students, the 
small group plan for the study of the Bible has 
been a decided innovation. During my first 
week in Japan, I found it difficult to impress 
upon my hearers the advantages of informal 
talks among groups of congenial friends. 
Even my interpreter was not wholly clear re- 
garding the nature of this method of study. 
On Easter Sunday, therefore, it was decided to 
conduct a model Bible group in the city of 
Osaka in order that the educated men in that 
city might have a graphic demonstration of the 
discussional plan. A platform was arranged in 
the center of a large hall, and the Japanese 
audience was seated around it. Seven pro- 
fessors and students were selected to form the 
model group. The Oriental audience, always 



64 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

keenly alive to the unusual and sensational, 
watched the proceedings with intense interest. 
The secretary of the class first arranged his 
reference books, maps and blackboard. The 
members of the group then entered as they 
would a friend's room for a chance conversa- 
tion. As soon as the men were seated at the 
table the leader, looking at one of the promi- 
nent Shinto teachers, said, "What does the 
resurrection of Jesus Christ mean to you per- 
sonally?" 

As the Shintoist's belief seemed to differ 
from that of other members of the class, repre- 
senting various religious creeds, in a few min- 
utes virtually all the members were trying to 
talk at the same time. During the session 
members of the audience were often impelled 
to stand because of quickened interest in the 
discussion. Finally, the leader rose and closed 
the hour with a brief prayer in the deep, earnest 
Japanese tongue. Since that meeting, groups 
for the study of the Bible have been formed in 
various places throughout the Empire, and 
hundreds of students have been studying and 
discussing the Bible in connection with indi- 
vidual and national problems. Moreover, the 
point of view has been changing; the Bible is 



THE BIBLE IN THE FAR EAST 65 

being examined by Japanese students — and 
also by Chinese students studying in Tokyo — 
not simply as a collection of texts and inter- 
esting mottoes, but also in relation to the his- 
torical development of humanity. 

China and the Bible 

Chinese students are also engaged in a cam- 
paign for the furtherance of the study of the 
Bible among the Chinese millions. During a 
two months' visit among the college men of 
China, I saw over 3,000 students enroll them- 
selves in Bible groups and make plans for the 
promotion of this cause. I shall not soon for- 
get the audience of high-class gentry students 
in Martyr's Memorial Hall, Shanghai, when 
225 representative Chinese college men joined 
Bible classes and arranged to engage the inter- 
est of the students of Shanghai. 

Some years ago Mr. D. Willard Lyon was 
appointed a national Bible secretary for China, 
to supervise and develop Bible study among 
the college and high school students of the 
Empire. Mr. Lyon has been a worker and 
educator in China for the last thirteen years 
and his familiarity with the language and stu- 
dents enables him to enter upon far-reaching 



66 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

plans. Funds were secured to provide for a 
series of Bible institutes which would reach 
the men of the large student centers. There, 
as in Japan, a Bible council of native and 
foreign scholars will cooperate, and as rapidly 
as possible Chinese teachers will be trained to 
lead classes. 

Korean Students 

The students of Korea, although fewer in 
number, are enthusiastic over the Bible move- 
ment. Immanuel Kant said, "The existence 
of the Bible as a book for the people is the 
greatest benefit which the human race has ever 
experienced." Although Korea may be called 
a belated nation, inefficient in her defenses, for 
three hundred years without great leadership, 
and with few resources in herself, she is begin- 
ning to share this benefit. 

I found that thousands of people there were 
learning to read solely by the use of the Bible. 
It is the only English book that is fully trans- 
lated, and the only one that the majority of 
the people can read and understand. Indeed, 
it is difficult to furnish enough Bibles at 
twenty- two cents apiece to supply the Koreans. 
In 1906, one church ordered 20,000 copies of 



THE BIBLE IN THE FAR EAST 67 

the New Testament. There was a slight delay 
at the printer's, with the result that every copy 
was sold before a page was printed. The 
Koreans with their almost starvation-wage 
rates, eagerly pay fifteen, thirty, and even fifty 
cents — which in Western values is double that 
amount— for well-bound copies of the New 
Testament. 

Bible study in Korea reaches all classes, 
from the leading men in education, politics and 
religion, to the simple peasant. The first 
Korean meeting which I addressed was held in 
the new Young Men's Christian Association 
building in the city of Seoul. The building 
was a gift of Mr. John Wanamaker, and is the 
finest modern edifice I saw in Korea. It is 
furnished with all the essential privileges of a 
modern Association — night school, educational 
class equipment, reading rooms, and a fine 
auditorium. The first meeting was attended 
by one thousand men, taxing the utmost capa- 
city of the large hall. Upon arriving at the 
building we found scores of students demand- 
ing tickets of admission. The scene which 
greeted our eyes upon entering the assembly 
hall was a memorable one. The most promi- 
nent men of Korea were upon the platform, 



68 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

and the audience was seated close together, in 
Oriental fashion upon mats. Most of the men 
wore their odd Korean hats. The moment my 
interpreter translated to the people the sugges- 
tion that the students and educated men of 
Korea join the 80,000 college men of eighteen 
nations interested in the world campaign for 
Bible study, the entire audience rose and in 
prolonged applause manifested the feeling 
which a professor who sat near me expressed by 
saying, "The Koreans will lay down their 
lives for their country, and any cause in which 
you appeal to them in the name of their nation 
will command their utmost allegiance." The 
truth of this remark was proved at the close of 
the meeting when 655 Koreans signed cards of 
enrolment for Bible study. At a later meeting 
a normal class for the training of Bible 
class teachers was organized with thirty-five 
Koreans as members, which included such in- 
fluential men as the Korean minister of educa- 
tion, chief officials of the city, and some of the 
best scholars of the land. Mr. Ye Sang Chai, 
the leader of this training class in the city of 
Seoul, was converted to the Christian religion 
by reading the Bible while confined in jail as 
a political prisoner during a stormy period of 



THE BIBLE IN THE FAR EAST 69 

civil strife. He is said to be the most proficient 
scholar of the Chinese language in Korea. 

I met Koreans who had walked from ten to 
fourteen days through the country in order to 
attend the Bible conference. 

Foreign Teachers and the Bible 

A large hope of Bible study in the Orient 
resides with the intelligent Western college 
men who are teachers in the government or 
mission schools. In Asia there are 1,253 
American student volunteers and a large num- 
ber from Great Britain, many of them strong, 
far-sighted crusaders whom Western educa- 
tional institutions have contributed to the Far 
East. But these men, and the men who will 
follow them, in order to succeed, must have 
increasingly in mind the necessity of a thorough 
knowledge of the Oriental, and broad sympa- 
thy with him. In spite of recent indication of 
progress, especially in the great port cities of 
the Orient, it is apparent that the men who 
are sent out to teach the Bible and to assist 
these countries in the application of its prin- 
ciples, must be taught more generally to ap- 
preciate that Eastern society does not admit of 
sudden transformation. The leaders must be 



70 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

content with a slow march. Native teachers 
must be discovered and trained by patient and 
often toilsome thoroughness. Attempts to 
stampede the East along any line are doomed 
failure. Kipling has said : 

Now it is not good for the Christian's health 
To hustle the Aryan brown 

For the Christian riles 

And the Aryan smiles 
And he weareth the Christian down; 

And the end of the fight 

Is a tombstone white 
With the name of the late deceased, 

And the epitaph drear: 

"A fool lies here 
Who tried to hustle the East." 

A Chinese student in Peking, in speaking 
to me of Robert Gailey, the former Princeton 
football player who for twelve years has been 
working among the students of Northern 
China, said, "Gailey is a great success as a 
Bible teacher, and his success lies largely in 
his determination to understand us." It is 
supremely true in China, Korea and Japan, 
that to sympathize is to help. 

Even though there were in the year 1909-10 
11,863 men and 17,459 women in mission 
study classes in the American colleges, and a 



THE BIBLE IN THE FAR EAST 71 

large number in the institutions of Great Brit- 
ain, Germany, Holland, South Africa, Aus- 
tralia and other countries, and even though 
there is a steadily increasing interest among 
students in the conditions and needs of non- 
Christian lands, there still exists a lamentable 
ignorance as to the actual situation in the 
Orient. A widespread system of education 
is needed to bring the East and West intelli- 
gently and sympathetically together. This 
campaign of education will touch not only the 
college life of the Orient, but every phase of 
Eastern existence. The large business houses, 
for example, should know something of the 
reaction of Orientals against our modern type 
of civilization before choosing men who are 
sent blindly into the East with little knowledge 
of the Oriental consciousness or experience 
with it. It would be most desirable if some 
plans could be formed by which the more 
thoughtful Orientals in this country could be 
brought into conference with men whose inter- 
ests lie in Asia. Some of the most hideous 
mistakes of Westerners in the Far East have 
been made through ignorance of the tendencies 
of the Eastern mind, which is directly antip- 
odal to the mind of the West. 



72 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

Changing Conditions 

This Bible awakening among Oriental stu- 
dents is of enormous importance in view of the 
changes now in progress in Asia. The great 
deeps of centuries are stirred ; the ancient civil- 
ization is passing away; all things are becom- 
ing new. Events are transpiring among these 
five hundred millions of people of Far Asia 
more striking than the events of the Crusades. 
Every cabinet of every country is awake to the 
fact, and is watching. Germany, Russia, 
France, England, and America are all repre- 
sented in the streets of Peking, Shanghai, 
Hongkong, and Tokyo. Although Korea has 
lost her independence in the last five years, she 
is now gaining a government. Western influ- 
ences are everywhere apparent. The rapid 
emergence of Japan into modern life has been 
the wonder of present world history, and she 
has far surpassed other Oriental nations. Not 
less striking than her development of the 
science of war and her victories on the fields of 
Manchuria have been her internal achieve- 
ments in science, education, and government. 
She has learned from all the nations of the 
world. Her army and navy reveal the influ- 



Copyright, 1910, by The Century Co. 




Sacred Bronze Bull in the Garden of a Temple, Kioto, Japan 
Followers of the Shinto faith stroke this image as a cure for rheumatism 



THE BIBLE IN THE FAR EAST 73 

ence of England and her schools remind one 
of Germany and America. While her develop- 
ment is by no means complete, Japan justly 
resents being termed an uncivilized nation. 
She is one of the great modern world powers. 
Even her Christian church is no longer domi- 
nated by foreigners, but is guided and often 
sustained by a new and self-confident Japanese 
leadership. 

But the changes in China are even more 
revolutionary. The transformation which 
commenced forty years ago in Japan is now in 
progress in China and is proceeding with even 
greater rapidity. The changes which have 
taken place since the Boxer uprising in 1900 
are nothing less than a revolution — changes so 
far-reaching that it seems almost impossible 
that they are being accomplished without war. 
The Chinese, who for centuries have been in 
the grip of their ancestors and have faced the 
past, are now looking to the future and rapidly 
emerging into a modern nation. 

New Political Life 

Politically the past two years have seen the 
opening of provincial assemblies and long 
strides toward a national parliament in China. 



74 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

It is true that the provincial assemblies had 
only advisory powers ; but they were neverthe- 
less composed of members chosen by popular 
election, and their deliberations have had 
noticeable influence. The national parliament 
buildings are in process of erection. How soon 
the throne will accede to the demand for a 
national parliament remains to be seen, but a 
constitutional government for China is sure to 
come. 

The Chinese government is now thoroughly 
aroused to the defense of its integrity, both 
territorial and financial. If its boundaries 
were in peril previous to the Russo-Japanese 
War, its commercial and financial life is now 
specially threatened by the subtle policies of 
foreign powers. The sovereignty of China in 
Manchuria is rapidly becoming a mere fiction. 
Almost every day brings to China a fresh 
demand for railway charters, mining conces- 
sions and the right to furnish a loan. It is not 
to be wondered at that certain Orientals begin 
to feel that "money" has a religion, and that, 
as Michelet once remarked, "Capital is Prot- 
estant." China has become an important 
battleground for the political and commercial 
contests of the nations. 



THE BIBLE IN THE FAR EAST 15 

Opium Reform 

There has been no more striking evidence 
of the "New China" than the opium reform. 
While there is still much to be done, this vice 
has been attacked with a thoroughness and 
sincerity that has surprised many of China's 
best friends. Indeed Mr. Fletcher Brockman 
summed up the situation for the changing East 
in his terse cablegram of appeal to the Roches- 
ter Student Volunteer Convention: "God has 
melted ancient China; who will mould the 
new?" Already atheism and agnosticism are 
rampant. Already materialism is gripping 
these nations. The Bible must be the basis of 
the modern civilization of these countries as of 
Western nations, if that civilization is to be 
permanent. In these days of change the 
strategic time for Bible study leadership is at 
hand. Are we to see that these nations are not 
only influenced by our Western materialistic 
civilization, but also that they build on the solid 
foundation of the Word of God? 

The New Education 

No agency is exerting greater influence in 
unlocking Oriental civilization to the whole 
world than the rise of modern learning. Until 



76 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

recent years the ancient systems of education 
held the Far East, and especially China, in an 
iron grasp. In the year 1872, and in the three 
years immediately following, the Chinese gov- 
ernment annually sent to study in American 
schools thirty Chinese boys of ages ranging 
from nine to fourteen. This was the initial 
step toward the breaking of the traditional con- 
servative policy of Chinese education. But in 
the year 1881, owing to reactionary influences, 
120 of these students were called home. Yet 
they took back to the scattered provinces of 
the Chinese Empire the seeds of a new educa- 
tional movement. Some of them went into the 
army, and have already given their lives for 
their country. Others have spent their years 
in the effort to eradicate the ignorance and 
overcome the prejudices of their countrymen. 
Wherever they have gone they have been, as it 
were, "the trumpets that sing to battle" for 
new ideas. 

The increasing number of Chinese college 
men who, in later years, have turned their faces 
to the West for education has enlarged this 
little company. In 1910-11 almost six hun- 
dred Chinese students were studying in the 
various institutions of the United States and 



Copyright, 1910, by The Century Co. 




Young Men's Christian Association 
Building at Fu-Chau, China 



Copyright, 1910, by The Century Co. 


"WH^PW 


1 III 1 


m.m 


1 . 'H?s 


lh> ■■-# 


1 

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J ".% ■■•'*•' ■■' " *" ' r~ ■ 


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A Confucian Tablet 

All government school students bow in worship 
periodically to tablets of this character 



THE BIBLE IN THE FAR EAST 77 

Canada. Whenever and wherever these men 
have returned to China they have been leaders 
in the transformations of the last few years. 
At present they are seeing their efforts 
crowned with success; their advice is being 
sought by men in authority ; they are in great 
demand as teachers in the government schools, 
where Western learning is being adapted to 
Oriental conditions with striking rapidity ; and 
now these students are aiding in introducing 
the Bible among the educated men of the 
Middle Kingdom. 

When I was in Nanking, the Chinese were 
tearing down the 13,000 examination stalls 
where the literati, the chosen scholars of the 
Empire, had for centuries gathered to take 
their examinations. I was asked to lunch with 
the Viceroy Tuan Fang, who invited me to 
visit the government schools, which occupy 
new buildings and are furnished with modern 
equipment. He insisted that I should not 
praise but give "moral advice" relative to the 
life of the 13,000 students of various grades 
studying under his supervision. When I asked 
the reason for seeking such advice from a per- 
son of different race and religion, he replied: 
"For years I have been studying the results of 



78 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

Western civilization and Western education. 
I have discovered that in every nation virtue 
is the secret of success, and that moral educa- 
tion is one of the chief roads to the acquire- 
ment of such virtue, be it individual or na- 
tional." 

When we consider that this viceroy held the 
life and death control of 80,000,000 people and 
that he is a rigorous Confucianist, we may 
realize the extent of the change in the point of 
view of Chinese educators and high officials. 
Bible study was started in one of these schools 
of this viceroy under the leadership of a 
Western college teacher. 

In Japan, as in China, "scholar" and 
"teacher" are names of high respect. A pro- 
fessor in the Imperial University at Tokyo 
holds a position equal in rank to that of our 
Justice of the Supreme Court. 

With this great reverence for learning, and 
with this new movement for modern education 
there comes a unique and far-reaching oppor- 
tunity to introduce along with the study of 
Western science the scientific and systematic 
study of the Bible, the world book of religion. 
Even the government professors are becoming 
interested. Several Imperial University pro- 



THE BIBLE IN THE FAR EAST 79 

f essors were present at the institute we held in 
Tokyo. One of them has been engaged to train 
able students to become teachers of the Bible, 
and he himself has been appointed a member of 
the Japanese National Bible Council for stu- 
dents. 

Students in Tokyo 

There is perhaps no more striking group of 
students in the whole Far East than the 4,000 
carefully chosen Chinese and the 700 Korean 
students who are studying in the city of Tokyo. 
These, with the men who are being sent to 
America to study, are the "Cecil Rhodes 
scholars" of the Far East. To be sure the 
number of students whom China has sent to 
Tokyo to obtain the principles of the new 
learning has decreased considerably during the 
last two years ; the quality of these college men, 
however, has advanced, and the men are not 
short-term men, as formerly, for they plan to 
remain for several years. The importance of 
these students can hardly be overestimated, 
because they return to the most remote prov- 
inces of their countries, to be in many cases 
the sole representatives of modern civilization. 
They are important also because of their needs. 



80 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

Like all students away from home, they are 
subjected to extreme temptations. In Tokyo, 
with its vast student population of 47,000 
Japanese, these Chinese and Korean college 
men are surrounded by customs in which vice 
is to a considerable extent both respectable and 
common. Among such young men the Bible 
is being discovered. Scores of the Chinese and 
Korean students now enlisted in the Bible cam- 
paign meet weekly for this study in the homes 
of their teachers. I attended a Sunday even- 
ing class of sixty-five Chinese students who 
came from twelve different provinces in China. 
One hundred Korean students were meeting 
every week to study the relation of Christianity 
to individual and institutional questions. A 
Chinese student told me that he was giving an 
hour a day to Bible study, and when he had 
read through the New Testament, he expected 
to be able to decide about becoming a Chris- 
tian. This concrete and scientific method of 
reading and considering large parts of the 
Bible before committing themselves to Chris- 
tianity is a trait of Orientals and there is 
hardly a greater and more intelligent means of 
evangelization in Eastern Asia today than 
this systematic study. 



THE BIBLE IN THE FAR EAST 81 

Bible Study Results in Eastern Asia 
Emphasis upon Things of the Spirit 

This Bible movement is bringing to the Far 
East a fresh interest in the spiritual life at a 
time when these principles are peculiarly 
needed. As the East grasps with eager hands 
at the prizes of modern progress, she is con- 
fronted with the temptations inherent in 
growing material resources. This is especially 
true of Japan, where the merchant classes, 
formerly of inferior social order, have been 
rapidly rising in rank until now, new-made 
millionaires are decorated by the Emperor with 
the "Third Order of the Rising Sun." The 
tendency is to copy and adapt rather than to 
pierce deep enough to find the real spirit of 
Christian civilization, and to realize that, as 
Matthew Arnold said : 

By the soul only 
The nation shall be great and free. 

The Bible and Reform 

Herbert Spencer said that institutions are 
dependent upon character, and, however 
changed in their superficial aspects, cannot be 
changed in their essential nature faster than 



82 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

character changes. The great question of the 
East today is the question of character. Some 
of the keenest students of Oriental conditions 
are apprehensive concerning this matter. 
Ancient moral restraints and sanctions are 
failing to hold Orientals as of yore. A promi- 
nent Chinese whose son was studying in Tokyo 
was heard to confess that his son had written to 
him saying that he no longer called his parent 
father nor himself a son ; they were now equal. 
Students and educated leaders laugh at idol- 
worshipers, but in many cases these men are 
doing little toward replacing the outgrown 
religious customs. Something like moral 
anarchy seems to be imminent unless vital 
forces replace the old and at present powerless 
code of restraints. I met scores of students 
who treated the whole matter of morals and 
religion with indifference. At times I found 
them atheistic and wholly skeptical. 

Trade and science are among the influences 
which are impressing the need of social and 
moral reform upon the Orient. To tell the 
truth is both a financial and a scientific neces- 
sity. Oriental civilization must learn that 
righteousness is the eternal foundation, or be 
eventually abolished. It is gradually being 



THE BIBLE IN THE FAR EAST 83 

realized that alertness, imitation, borrowing, or 
ingenious tricks are not substitutes for char- 
acter. 

The feeling is growing in Japan that her 
reputation for honesty and morality must be 
re-established. In the Imperial Rescript of 
1890, relating to education, special emphasis 
was laid upon morality and education along 
ethical lines. There is danger, however, that 
the present plan of ethical teaching in the 
schools will lose much of its force through 
vagueness. It is utterly lacking in the dynam- 
ic force of personal religion, while the 
absence of tangible and definite methods of 
inculcating its teachings or applying them to 
everyday life is sadly apparent. In view of 
these conditions, the movement to bring about 
a widespread, practical interest in voluntary 
Bible study among students is most timely in 
Japan, as it is in China. This study has in 
mind not simply the planting of ethical prin- 
ciples ; it also touches the deeper religious con- 
sciousness of thinking men. It insists upon 
the direct attachment of ethical and religious 
truth to social, political and industrial condi- 
tions. 

Along with this study, therefore, practical 



84 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

suggestions are being made for the application 
of new inspiration to the problems of this 
modern Eastern life. The students are going 
forth from these classes, where the questions of 
city and state are being discussed in the light 
of the principles of Christianity, to organize 
clubs and committees for the education and 
betterment of the poor and less fortunate 
classes in the large cities. The readiness with 
which the students of these nations are accept- 
ing and attaching themselves to this campaign 
is giving new hope and satisfaction to native 
and foreign workers alike. 

Essential Christianity 

Success in the Bible enterprise in the East, 
as well as in the West, depends upon seeing 
truths in proportion ; large things must be seen 
large and small things small. Even a super- 
ficial study of conditions in the Ear East 
brings the conclusion that the present great 
transformations are due more largely to Chris- 
tian missions than to any other single factor. 
It is true that at times workers in the East have 
failed to accent with sufficient emphasis the 
vital elements of the Christian religion, to 
discriminate between that which is local, 



THE BIBLE IN THE FAR EAST 85 

temporary, or Western in form and doctrine, 
and that which is essential and permanently 
central in all races. 

The widespread and remarkable awakening 
of the Far Eastern nations does not mean 
thorough enlightenment, by any means. The 
great mass of the Eastern people, as one stu- 
dent in China expressed it, "are dazed, not 
enlightened." While thinking men of Asia are 
truly in a questioning mood today, they have 
not generally caught either the spirit or the 
method of the great truths which have domi- 
nated Christianity. 

The great opportunity for Bible study in 
the East lies in its possibility of including men 
of every kind of faith or of no faith. In this 
movement the emphasis is not upon creed or 
upon nationality but upon truth and life. It 
is characterized by a bold belief in the power 
of God to speak through His Word. Men 
come together with serious and practical pur- 
pose to learn the facts concerning a great 
literature. The leaders of this movement of 
educated men have set their minds in the direc- 
tion of a few great central ideas, which are 
being emphasized in carefully arranged courses 
of Bible study in the native languages of the 



86 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

Orient. Over one half of the 3,000 Chinese 
students who voluntarily enrolled themselves 
in Bible classes, during my visit to the institu- 
tions of China, professed faiths other than that 
of the Christian religion. The tremendous 
possibilities of this enterprise appear when one 
realizes that the number of Oriental students 
who could be enlisted in this study today is 
dependent almost entirely upon the number 
and equipment of teachers. 

The Bible and Its Personal Influence 

However, no phase of this movement is 
perhaps more striking than the influence which 
the Bible is exerting in the development of 
individualism. For centuries the community 
has supplanted the individual in Eastern Asia. 
There has been, in fact, no place for the 
individual in the Far Eastern social system. 
There has been little or no emphasis upon 
social identity. The Eastern student has 
found himself bound into a veritable hierarchy 
of subjection. His spontaneity and origin- 
ality, if they have existed at all, have been 
forced to turn themselves into servitude to the 
family. This has brought about a type of stu- 
dent which is uniform, indeed, but often color- 



THE BIBLE IN THE FAR EAST 87 

less. He excels in memory, but is weak in 
analysis and initiative. This was exemplified 
in the case of a Chinese student in Hongkong. 
He had been studying in the Old Testament 
for six or eight months and had been required, 
among other duties, to commit to memory the 
names of the books of the Old Testament. 
Upon examination, he was asked to criticise 
the acts of Moses. With due Celestial solem- 
nity the young man rose to his feet and said: 
"Far be it from me, an humble Confucianist 
student, to criticise the acts of so great a man 
as Moses. But," he continued, "if you would 
like to have the names of the books of the Old 
Testament, I will repeat them herewith." 
After which statement he went through the 
books of the Old Testament at lightning speed, 
and had started to return, repeating them back- 
ward, when he was halted by his teacher, who 
suggested that analysis and not memory had 
been desired. 

Today, the Far East feels the need of 
dealing with the development of the individual 
soul. Confucianism, with its ethical agnosti- 
cism and moral codes, is silent upon the culti- 
vation or the outcome of the individual soul. 
Taoism, with many high ideals in the writings 



88 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

of its founder Laotze, contains what might be 
termed a transcendental system of philosophy ; 
but in practice the religion has degenerated 
into a body of superstition, suggesting many 
nostrums for spiritual ills, but giving little 
thought to the constitution of real personality. 
The demon worship of Korea, with its innate 
belief in malevolent spirits, differs compara- 
tively little from Taoism. To Buddhism, the 
great philosophic faith of the entire Far East, 
the individual soul is something lost in reflec- 
tion, fading into the unconsciousness of Nir- 
vana, "the starry stillness of all-embracing 
space." 

The Bible comes to the East with a personal 
religion. It brings the gospel of a new hope, 
a new individual consciousness and responsi- 
bility. One who has not seen the influence of 
Bible religion in Asia can scarcely appreciate 
the optimism and good cheer which it brings to 
peoples to whom in many cases life has meant 
illusion and despair. These men, who have 
been accepting our Western achievements and 
our modern civilization, but have been reject- 
ing our creeds, are commencing to find by the 
study of outstanding biblical truths the real 
message of Christianity to individual men. 



THE BIBLE IN THE FAR EAST 89 

If the degree of the individualism of a people 
is a self-recorded measure of its place in the 
great march of mind, this vital cause, which 
places chief emphasis upon the eternal value 
of individual souls, will have no small mission 
to men of the Orient. 

We all know the statue of the Pilgrim 
Father with his staff in his hand and the Bible 
under his arm. We are accustomed to say that 
the chief element in successful Western Chris- 
tian civilization is that sense of personal reli- 
gious liberty which is central in the Bible mes- 
sage. The query persists in the minds of those 
who visit the Orient; if the East remains im- 
personal, if she fails to develop great, excellent, 
liberty-loving personalities, will not her possi- 
bilities of career disappear before the advanc- 
ing nations of the West? One notable safe- 
guard at least against such a calamity will be 
the return to the Orient of the book which 
there had its origin and home. 

A World-wide Movement 

The principles of the Bible when once 
grasped bring into thought and action general 
interests. Charley Studd, the English athlete, 
said that England was good enough for him 



90 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

until he began to study the principles under- 
lying Christian happiness and Christian phil- 
anthropy. Eastern students are studying with 
genuine interest in the New Testament the 
biography of the great Oriental Teacher. 
This study is opening the way for that breadth 
of sympathy with other nations which is made 
possible through the outgoing impulse of a 
great international campaign. 

An American college man who has been 
intimately associated with the promotion of 
Bible interest among students of the United 
States and Canada recently sailed for India, 
there to be the National Student Bible Secre- 
tary for India and Ceylon. No one can meas- 
ure the cosmopolitan significance of such 
leadership. Institutes for the inception of 
successful developmental and propagating 
agencies will be planned for all parts of the 
East. Oriental students will be sent in in- 
creasing numbers to great national gatherings 
to inspect the plans of other nations and to give 
vent to their growing desire to escape from a 
mere selfish evolution and stagnant isolation. 
Moreover, students from the East now study- 
ing in the colleges and universities of North 
America are becoming interested in the exer- 




Ross A. Hadley 



National Student Bible Secretary for 
India and Ceylon 



THE BIBLE IN THE FAR EAST 91 

cises and methods of this study among our edu- 
cated men. Plans for the training of these men 
are being made in order that they may go back 
to their country not as spectators, but as 
leaders in the new order of events toward what 
Professor Nash calls, "The eternal worth 
while." All of these occurrences will surely 
be direct influences in bringing in the time 
when as Kipling says : 

There is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor 

Birth, 
When two strong men stand face to face, tho' they come 

from the ends of the earth ! 



CHAPTER FOUR 
ORGANIZING BIBLE STUDY FOR COLLEGE MEN 



The Bible thoroughly known is a literature of itself — the 
rarest and the richest in all departments of thought or imagin- 
ation which exists. — J. A. Fronde. 

Jesus' question: "Who do the multitudes say that I am?" 
— Luke ix. 18. 

The Bible is a record of the preeminent meetings of God with 
men. — President Henry Churchill King. 

Ye search the scriptures, because ye think that in them ye 
have eternal life; and these are they which bear witness of me. 
— John v. 38, 39. 

I see that the Bible fits into every fold and crevice of the 
human heart. I am a man, and I believe that this is God's 
book because it is man's book. — Hallam. 

I think that I know my Bible as few literary men know it. 
There is no book in the world like it, and the finest novels ever 
written fall far short in interest of any one of the stories it 
tells. Whatever strong situations I have in my books are not of 
my creation, but are taken from the Bible. "The Deemster" is 
the story of the Prodigal Son. "The Bondman" is the story of 
Esau and Jacob. "The Scapegoat" is the story of Eli and his 
sons, and "The Manxman" is the story of David and Uriah. 
— Hall Caine. 

That through patience and comfort of the scriptures we 
might have hope. — Romans xv. 4- 

And without knowledge of the facts, no clearness or fairness 
of mind can in any study do anything; this cannot be laid 
down too rigidly. — Matthew Arnold. 



CHAPTER FOUR 

ORGANIZING BIBLE STUDY FOR 
COLLEGE MEN 

What have been the features and what the 
methods of this student Bible study movement 
among the Young Men's Christian Associa- 
tions which have made it reach the strong men 
of the leading institutions of the country? 
There has been a vision, but there have been 
also practical methods for embodying that 
vision. There has been careful cultivation of 
Bible study by the student department of the 
International Committee. But the college 
men themselves in large numbers have devoted 
to this work their energies and best ideas. 
Hard work and much sacrifice have been the 
secret of the progress of this movement. 

There have been several special features of 
this Bible endeavor, which have differentiated 
it from other types of Bible study, and which 
seem to be among the reasons for its compre- 
hensive hold upon the students of the country. 
These methods are adaptable, not only in edu- 
cational institutions of various types, but also 
in any church or community. They are here 



96 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

set forth as practical suggestions of the manner 
in which Bible study may be made interesting 
and profitable. 

Group Plan 

The group plan, where not more than a 
dozen men meet each week to discuss the study 
of the previous days, and to face practical 
problems of religion and daily living, has been 
a distinctive feature. The large Bible classes 
taught by instructors and biblical scholars, 
who customarily used the lecture method, had 
been found to decrease in attendance and 
interest as the college year advanced, and the 
teachers were rarely able to secure personal 
study outside of the class hour. A band of ten 
or twelve men — a saving remnant — who fin- 
ished the year found the discussions so helpful 
and formed such close personal associations as 
to ally them forever with Bible study. Conse- 
quently the group plan has been in vogue for 
the last ten years in the colleges, and men have 
found that a small number gathered around a 
table, or in a student's room with a student 
leader, are able to face their religious and 
moral problems with a frankness and 
thoroughness impossible in a large class. Dr. 



ORGANIZING BIBLE STUDY 97 

Jones of the Government Service, speaking at 
a Bible study conference, emphasized the ad- 
vantage which the teacher had over the 
preacher in that no preacher could be sure in 
a general congregation that he was either 
being understood or that his words were carry- 
ing conviction, whereas the teacher was always 
open to questions or objections by the students. 
This advantage, however, does not hold in the 
lecture class, but is distinctive of the small 
group. The Germans have developed the 
seminar plan in education and have found that 
men were able to come to independent con- 
clusions through this close association of a few 
earnest men in a way otherwise impossible. In 
a more popular manner the Student Christian 
Association has used the seminar plan where 
groups of a few earnest men meet together 
each week and frankly and thoroughly discuss 
the study of the week, and its application to 
their own lives. There is no student who, 
deep in his heart, is not interested in practical 
religion, and many a college or scientific school 
man has been able to think his way through 
to a clear and real faith in such a group, where 
he did not feel restricted in making known his 
problems, and where other men were facing 



98 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

those same questions with him. Thus the small 
group has made discussion natural and pos- 
sible, as it necessarily could not be when the 
class formed an audience and the teacher occu- 
pied a position intellectually far in advance of 
the class members. 

The plan makes possible the formation of 
Bible classes in all parts of the college constit- 
uency, wherever a few men are in the habit 
of coming together in natural and informal 
association. 

The group method also emphasizes the fact 
that the formation of a personal Bible study 
habit is one of the essential objects rather 
than attending a service or hearing a disquisi- 
tion upon the Bible. In other words the class 
exists for the sake of the study rather than the 
study existing for the sake of the class. The 
interest engendered in natural and personal 
discussion and interchange of opinion reacts 
directly upon the student's desire to become 
more thoroughly acquainted with the contents 
of the Bible. 

Practical Courses 

In the year 1885 four secretaries of the 
International Committee of Young Men's 



ORGANIZING BIBLE STUDY 99 

Christian Associations, Richard C. Morse, 
Luther D. Wishard, Charles K. Ober and 
Henry E. Brown, met at East Northfield, 
Massachusetts, and spent one month in the 
preparation of outlines of Bible study for the 
use of young men in the colleges. These out- 
lines were printed the following year, and cir- 
culated among students by the Student De- 
partment of the International Committee. 
During the subsequent ten years, several other 
sets of Bible studies were written with increas- 
ing favor. In the year 1896, however, the type 
of studies now used was first inaugurated by 
the issuance of a course on the "Life of Christ" 
by Mr. H. B. Sharman. Since that time 
studies have been prepared, as will be seen 
from the bibliography at the close of this book, 
covering the greater part of the Bible. The 
studies are intended to appeal to all kinds of 
students, regardless of their special interest in 
religious things. Indeed it is striking to note 
that more than a fourth of the men in Bible 
study during 1909-10 were not professing 
Christians. 

These courses have been written by those 
who know men and their problems and their 
temptations. They are eminently practical. 



100 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

The aim has been to abstain altogether from 
the use of stereotyped theological or religious 
phrases. While giving due attention to the 
great truths of historic Christianity and recog- 
nizing that earnest belief must always be the 
basis of all living, the emphasis is not upon the 
discussion of doctrine or theological questions. 
The Bible has been approached as a great book 
of religion — the Book that teaches practical 
lessons of right living, and how to embody 
those principles, so universally adaptable. 
This approach to the Bible from the practical 
rather than from the theoretical viewpoint has 
made a strong appeal to college men. 

Daily Study 

One feature of the first outline studies was 
the arrangement of the material in sections for 
each day of the week, with a brief practical sug- 
gestion at the close. This idea has been fol- 
lowed in most of the studies published, and has 
been one method of emphasizing another dis- 
tinctive feature of this movement, namely, the 
formation of daily devotional habits. This has 
followed naturally from the practical courses 
of study, because the man who wishes to make 



ORGANIZING BIBLE STUDY 101 

his religion real in the classroom, and on the 
campus, or in the daily routine, soon realizes 
that he must come to the source of help and 
power oftener than once a week. When col- 
lege men discover that the gift of the Holy 
Spirit is "an intimate association with an All- 
powerful Holy Person," as Bosworth's studies 
say, and that religion is really a continual and 
everyday friendship with Jesus Christ, they 
also feel that there must be a continuous rela- 
tionship with this Friend, and frequent com- 
munication with Him, and a daily reading of 
the message which He left. There is a passage 
in Isaiah which seems like an anti-climax; 
"They shall mount up with wings as eagles; 
they shall run, and not be weary; they shall 
walk, and not faint," and yet it is not. 
Hamilton and Wright probably feel an exhila- 
ration of flight as they overcome the force of 
gravitation in their aeroplanes, and these "bird 
men" are led to disastrous feats of daring once 
they are off the ground; but it took real grit 
and earnest effort for Weston to walk from 
San Francisco to New York, plodding along 
day after day, in bad weather, on muddy roads, 
through rough mountains, just keeping at it. 
It is possible, through the enthusiasm of a new 



102 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

faith, or the inspiration of a great religious 
meeting, to mount up for a little while, and 
seem to be almost in another world in a reli- 
gious experience. But men soon find that the 
test of their religion is whether they are able to 
walk Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and the 
rest of the week, just plodding along doing 
right in the classroom, on the campus, or in the 
office. It is this everyday religion which needs 
the morning watch, and the daily talk with the 
Friend Who can enable men to walk true. 

Systematic Bible Study 

The Bible should be studied regularly and 
with some method if one expects it to yield 
genuine interest. An outline or Bible study 
course is of great advantage in inducting an 
individual into the riches of this book. One 
needs to begin somewhere, to continue and 
arrive somewhere in Bible study. 

In one of John Ruskin's books we find some 
old monks describing the way in which hedge- 
hogs eat grapes by rolling around underneath 
the grape vines. Any grapes which happened 
to cling to the hedgehog's spines would be 
picked off and eaten. We find persons at times 




K -2 

O w 

OS C 

fa !3 



ORGANIZING BIBLE STUDY 103 

who impress us with having studied the Bible 
in a similar hit-or-miss fashion. The book has 
been opened at random, a chance impression 
has been derived, but the study has lacked 
"whole tissue," as Matthew Arnold would say. 
In fact, the study has been undertaken un- 
reasonably and with no guiding principle. 

Some such system of semi-superstitious 
study of the Bible is common among people 
who wonder why it is not interesting. The 
Book is used almost as a fetish. To be sure* 
God has brought His message in such fashion 
at times to those who have turned to the Bible 
for immediate comfort. To think, however, of 
studying the Bible in this way, is indeed pre- 
posterous. Just as truly as it would be im- 
possible to receive any tangible or permanently 
profitable impression about the science of 
chemistry by thus treating a chemistry text- 
book, so it is quite futile to expect a growing 
interest in the Bible without a working plan 
and system. 

A glance at the studies published by the 
International Committee will show that an 
attempt has been made to cover in a system- 
atic manner the principal facts and teachings 
of the Bible. 



104 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

Student Leadership 

The use of student leaders has a twofold 
object: it leads to a more frank and personal 
discussion than is possible with a faculty- 
leader, whom the members of the group are 
likely to allow to do the studying for them; 
and it also develops Bible leaders who will be 
of service in their local churches and communi- 
ties after graduation. But with all these ad- 
vantages, a general untrained leadership is 
disastrous. Unless experienced students can 
be secured as leaders, in order that the group 
interest may be maintained and the work ade- 
quately continued, the leaders must be gath- 
ered into normal groups and trained by some 
one of the faculty, the general secretary, or an 
advanced student. There should be a normal 
training group for each course, and in small 
institutions where there are a limited number of 
classes, as many as possible should be studying 
the same course in order to make possible such 
scientific training. The normal group, there- 
fore, plays an important part in the successful 
Bible study department, and, in general, 
trained student leadership is advisable. 
Where this is impracticable, faculty members 
or city pastors are employed. 



ORGANIZING BIBLE STUDY 105 

The Organization of a Bible Study De- 
partment 

Any close observer of modern conditions in 
college life will realize that this great interest 
on the part of students is by no means a spon- 
taneous uprising. Back of it there have been 
the continued and persistent efforts of men, 
whose own experience with the Bible has led 
them to feel the great need of bringing other 
men in touch with this same dynamic book. 
The history of the Bible work in the great uni- 
versities and in the smaller colleges is the 
history of the sacrifice of courageous students, 
who, at the cost of time, pleasure, and even 
scholarship, have drawn their fellows to this 
systematic study. Some student, who has been 
coming daily in touch with the great personali- 
ties of the Bible, has caught the vision of the 
possibility of having every man in the institu- 
tion vitally related to the Bible. His vision has 
impelled him to gather around him a group 
of men, each dominated by the same purpose, 
and they have gone out in united spirit to 
battle against what seemed at times over- 
whelming odds to bring this great force into 
the life of their associates. 



106' COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

The efficiency of this group of men, chosen 
early in the spring, has been promoted by 
developing a spirit of brotherhood, by securing 
on the part of each man the careful study of 
the past experience of Bible workers in his 
own and other institutions, by mastering the 
special literature available for this purpose, 
and by frequent meetings for prayer and coun- 
sel. With this preparation the committee has 
sought: first, to select courses especially 
adapted to the needs and peculiarities of the 
situation ; second, to develop and train leaders ; 
third, to enlist in further study those who have 
been continuing the work during the year; 
and fourth, to make careful plans for the 
summer and fall. It has been found of the 
very greatest value to have a large number of 
group leaders in attendance at the summer 
conferences, held in different sections of the 
country, in order that they may get inspira- 
tion and stimulus for the task before them. 

The summer over, the committee returns 
with plans matured for approaching every man 
in the institution for Bible study. A mass 
meeting of students at the very outset of the 
college year is addressed by an eminent 
speaker, with prominent students indicating 



ORGANIZING BIBLE STUDY 107 

their conviction as to the value of the study in 
college life. Then follows what has come to 
be known as the quick-canvass. It is con- 
ducted by an enlarged committee consisting of 
all the men available for service. The solici- 
tors are carefully trained in the reasons for 
Bible study, the objections likely to be met, and 
they are furnished with suggestions regarding 
the approach to men. Definite men are 
assigned to be solicited and the entire institu- 
tion is covered in a period varying from one to 
seven days according to the size of the student 
body. 

Immediately following the close of the 
quick-canvass the groups are organized and 
the missing members sought out and related 
to their proper groups. The normal classes, 
which have been planned in the spring, are 
started in the work of training the group 
leaders and then a second campaign is pro- 
jected to reach the men not enlisted on the first 
canvass. The year's work then consists of a 
continued emphasis upon the regular system- 
atic study of the Bible day by day, and this 
is fostered through conferences with the 
leaders, through lectures by professors, and by 
means of Bible institutes, which focus the 



108 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

attention of the entire institution on the Bible 
at critical times during the year, when there is 
likely to be failure in the attendance. Coupled 
with these institutes it has been found most 
helpful to develop the group spirit by social 
evenings in the homes of interested professors. 
The climax of the year is reached in the 
spring, when, either in a large gathering of 
students or through the quiet personal talks 
of the leaders with the men, opportunity is pre- 
sented for the recording of decisions made 
during the year. Thousands of men have for 
the first time made, or have renewed, their 
allegiance to Jesus Christ as a result of the 
vision of Him which they have received 
through the Bible groups. Thus it will be seen 
that the modern Bible study committee plans 
its campaign with the same thoroughness and 
persistency which characterize the business 
life of our modern times, and the results are 
measured, not in the plans made, but in lives 
transformed and characters strengthened. 

Suggestions to Individual Bible Stu- 
dents 

A prominent business man in New York 
said to me recently, "How can I become inter- 



ORGANIZING BIBLE STUDY 109 

ested in the Bible?" One is increasingly im- 
pressed with the fact that many persons of 
various classes would study the Bible if they 
only knew how. What is necessary for the 
individual who wishes to study the Bible to 
make it interesting and attractive? 

Thorough Study 

We must give time and attention to Bible 
study to treat the Bible respectfully and rea- 
sonably. We must treat it as we would any 
other book or subject from which we ex- 
pect to obtain anything worth while. No 
ordinary book can be discovered without the 
expense of time and attention. The Bible is 
an extraordinary book. It is profound; it is 
sublime ; it has to do with whatsoever things are 
elevated; it deals with the great moral crises 
and epochs of men and of nations; it is the 
conveyer of the deepest spiritual experience 
of the world's greatest souls. 

H. L. Hastings, who for years was a lec- 
turer in America, used to begin one of his 
lectures by using the heading of one of Inger- 
soll's lectures, "The Mistakes of Moses.'' 
"Yes," he said, "the mistakes of Moses. I am 



110 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

impelled to think that Moses must have been 
considerable of a man since three thousand 
years after his death men are talking about his 
mistakes." It seems almost ludicrous to think 
of understanding an immortal character like 
that of Moses without hours of thorough study 
and contemplation of this great Jewish chief- 
tain, lawgiver and statesman. 

Victor Hugo called the book of Job the 
greatest single piece of literature in the world. 
I met a student a while ago who told me that 
he never could get interested in the Old Testa- 
ment. I found upon inquiry that he had never 
spent a full hour in reading Job, this great 
masterpiece of thought, replete with philoso- 
phy, humanity and religion. 

The Bible presents the Psalms of David, 
the satisfying portion in life and death of mul- 
titudes of men and women in the midst of their 
deepest needs. 

The Bible offers to us Paul, the scholar, mis- 
sionary, metaphysician, preacher, martyr and 
soldier of the cross of Christ; the fighter who 
died in chains, but who rose above his slavery 
crying exultantly at the last like some valiant 
warrior, "I have fought a good fight, I have 
kept the faith." 



ORGANIZING BIBLE STUDY 111 

If a man really desires to discover a rich life 
interest, an interest which will stand the strain 
of time, an interest that will control him and 
grow great within him through the changing 
years, let him give attention to some of the 
great questions or some of the mighty person- 
alities of the Bible. 

The Bible Studied Reverently 

Prayerful Bible study is the bridge between 
man's need and God's supply. However, to 
say that men should study the Bible prayer- 
fully does not signify that one should always 
study this book upon his knees; nor does it 
mean that the Bible is to be studied only in the 
quiet hour of a religious service. 

Edison was heard to say one morning as he 
started to his work: "Oh, mysterious electric 
force, I come to you this morning, asking that 
you will give me what I want to know today. 
I will do anything and make any sacrifice 
necessary to pay the price." He put himself 
in the attitude of responsiveness, of sympa- 
thetic appreciation. He became a disciple in 
the great school of electrical resources. 

The Bible student's attitude is not unlike 



112 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

this. He comes to the Bible expectantly, 
eagerly, preparedly. Mentally and spiritually 
he endeavors to place himself in direct com- 
munication with the current that comes from 
the great power-house of this mighty litera- 
ture. 

The Bible, if honestly studied, leads men 
almost unconsciously into the life of prayer. 
This prayerful attitude will be evident in the 
spirit of praise and become a psalm, a song of 
gratefulness. The Bible will fire ambitions; 
it will paint visions upon the mount — ideals 
that will entice the heart to cry for supporting 
strength to make all things in the valley 
according to the lofty dream. It will bring us 
a new conception of our weakness, uncovering 
our dearest, sweetest sin. The Bible will per- 
form a vital function when the individual soul 
cries, perforce, in the words of Paul: "O 
wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver 
me out of the body of this death?" Bible study 
will reveal in new glory the person of Jesus 
Christ, our Lord. Our hearts will burn within 
us talking with Him on the way. Bible study 
is not simply cold, intellectual, scientific and 
business-like. It calls us to join instinctively 
in "The Higher Pantheism" of Tennyson: 



ORGANIZING BIBLE STUDY 113 

Speak to Him thou for He hears, and Spirit with Spirit can 

meet — 
Closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet. 

Dean Bosworth has said that the Bible is one 
long call to prayer sounding through the cen- 
turies and issuing from the experience of pray- 
ing souls. Prayerful Bible study gives access 
to God. Indeed it brings us into the very 
center of God's character. It reminds us that 
God truly cares, and that He not only cares 
but is in immediate control of those influences 
which bring relief and blessing to His children. 

To make the Bible interesting means to 
study the Bible in the spirit of prayerful com- 
munion with the Father. 

Thoughtful Bible Study 

"Our life is what our thoughts make it" was 
the suggestion of Marcus Aurelius. Subjects 
that neither require nor obtain serious thought- 
fulness fail to hold our attention for any length 
of time. The Bible is supremely effective as a 
power to set men thinking; it is also an un- 
discoverable book without thought. Matthew 
Arnold speaks of the desirability of a clear 
stream of thought flowing over a given sub- 
ject. One of the most valuable contributions 



114 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

which John Locke of England has made to 
many a student has been through his insist- 
ence that man should have "clear ideas" about 
any matter. 

It is of peculiar importance that men should 
use their minds in their endeavor to make the 
Bible interesting. Biblical modes of expres- 
sion require study. Much of Bible truth 
appears in the form of Oriental pictures and 
figures. A visit to the Orient brings new 
vividness to many a New Testament parable 
as its Eastern setting becomes intelligible. It 
is necessary to utilize our minds, our imagina- 
tion and our judgment in securing perspective 
and adjustment to Bible truth. Paul did not 
write historical treatises on religious belief. 
His ideas are not always found in an order 
which will fit our scientific modern analysis. 
We must discover that he wrote for religious 
edification and not for doctrinal synods. We 
must be thoughtful in discovering his central 
meaning as well as in the application of that 
meaning to our practical individual and collect- 
ive problems. 

The time and place for Bible study is im- 
portant if we are to achieve thoughtful results. 
A student told me a few years ago that he 



ORGANIZING BIBLE STUDY 115 

feared he did not know how to study the Bible. 
He said that while reading at night he fell 
asleep and did not awaken until two o'clock the 
next morning. I asked him when he began his 
study. He replied, "At 11.30 p.m." It is 
possible that an occasional man may have a 
temperament that adapts itself to midnight 
thinking; this student, however, had ap- 
proached his Bible when exhausted both men- 
tally and physically. His mind made no vigor- 
ous attack upon the great Bible ideas. The 
Bible to him was an undiscovered book be- 
cause he had not thought upon it. 

Phillips Brooks once said: "When the pro- 
cession of your powers goes up to worship in 
the temple, leave not the noblest of them all 
behind to cook the dinner and to keep the 
house. Give your intelligence to God." 

I found a little while ago that a leader of 
great power spent half a day each week study- 
ing the Bible and thinking of some great Bible 
truth. 

A Japanese Christian of exceptional leader- 
ship told me that he had been giving all of his 
free time for months to the study of the mean- 
ing of the resurrection, the great Christian 
fact. 



116 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

Another man in the Orient told me that he 
had spent a year in a most fascinating way, 
tracing the wonderful history of the human 
spirit through the entire Old Testament. 

To achieve abiding interest in the Word of 
God, we may well heed the apostle's sugges- 
tion, "Think on these things." 

Reading of Large Portions 

One of the best means for making the Bible 
live in one's mind is to saturate one's thoughts 
with an entire book or period or section of the 
Bible. There are twenty-seven books in the 
New Testament. At one sitting it is possible 
to read one of these books of Bible history 
which has thrilled life for generations. I have 
an acquaintance who has the habit of reading 
the Book of Proverbs once each month, and 
reading it straight through without stopping. 
To take a Sunday afternoon to read the Gospel 
of John would mean to many a man a new 
revelation of the life and teachings of Jesus. 
Spread out before you the map of Asia Minor, 
and with this before your eyes, read with im- 
aginative thoughtfulness Paul's letter to the 
Ephesians. A prominent lawyer in New 
York, when asked the reason for his unusual 



ORGANIZING BIBLE STUDY 117 

vocabulary and peculiar ability in the choice 
of words answered, "I read through the Bible 
from cover to cover twice every year." 

The Chief Bible Personality 

Carlyle is reported to have said at one time 
to Holman Hunt: "I'm only a poor man, but 
I would give one third of what I possess for 
a veritable, contemporaneous representation of 
Jesus Christ. Had those carvers of marble 
chiseled a faithful statue of the Son of man, 
as He called Himself, and shown us what man- 
ner of man He was like, what His height, what 
His build, and what the features of His 
sorrow-marked face were, I for one would have 
thanked the sculptor with all the gratitude of 
my heart for that portrait, as one of the most 
precious heirlooms of the ages." 

It is not strange that the most popular Bible 
courses are those that deal with the life and 
teachings of Jesus. Bible study is the study 
of a person, and Christ is the preeminent theme 
of the Word of God. It would be difficult to 
suggest a more certain plan for creating inter- 
est in the Bible than a thoroughgoing study 
of the personality of Jesus, His life and genius, 
what He was, what He did in the world, what 



118 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

He has given to us, and what is its value. The 
forms of Christianity may change from genera- 
tion to generation. The expression of Bible 
truth may differ from period to period or in 
various nations. Indeed, a part of the life 
work of Christians will probably always be 
consumed in translating religious truth into 
terms which the changing times can under- 
stand. But the study of the character of Jesus 
will be the perennial theme which will interest 
the world, as John Shairp with such beauty and 
grace has said : 

Subtlest thought shall fail and learning falter, 
Churches change, forms perish, come and go. 
But our human needs, they will not alter, 
Christ no other age shall e'er outgrow. 
Yea, O Changeless One, Thou only 
Art life's guide and spiritual goal; 
Thou the light across the dark vale lonely; 
Thou the eternal haven of the soul. 



CHAPTER FIVE 
VALUES OF BIBLE STUDY 



Not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God 
deceitfully; but by the manifestation of the truth, commending 
ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. — 2 Cor. 
iv. 2. 

Christ came out of eternity praying. He kneeled by men 
and prayed. — Prof. E. I. Bosworth. 

We get no good 
By being ungenerous even to a book, 
And calculating profits — so much help — so much reading — 

It is rather when 
"We gloriously forget ourselves and plunge 
Soul-forward, headlong into a book's profound, 
Impassioned for its beauty and salt of truth, 
'T is then we get the right good from a book. 

— Elizabeth Browning. 

Henry Drummond was once asked to give the names of the 
three most valuable biographies. He replied: First, the Life 
of Christ; second, the Life of Christ; and third, the Life of 
Christ." 

Hoffman in Dresden said he caught the figure of the Christ 
boy from a certain Dresden youth, but the face he gained by 
prayer. 

If Jesus Christ is a man, — 

And only a man, — I say 
That of all mankind I cleave to him, 

And to him will I cleave alway. 

If Jesus Christ is a God, — 

And the only God, — I swear 
I will follow Him through Heaven and hell, 

The earth, the sea, and the air! 

— Richard Watson Gilder. 



CHAPTER FIVE 
VALUES OF BIBLE STUDY 

In his essay on Goethe, Carlyle refers to 
"that religious wisdom, which may still, with 
something of its old impressiveness, speak to 
the whole soul ; still, in these hard, unbelieving 
utilitarian days, reveal to us glimpses of the 
unseen but not unreal world, so that the actual 
and the ideal may again meet together, and 
clear knowledge be again wedded to religion in 
the life and business of men." 

The significance of these words is begin- 
ning to be felt today in the great awakening of 
Bible interest among men of all classes 
throughout the world. Over against the fre- 
quent announcement that our colleges are 
becoming skeptical and secular, we must con- 
sider the fact that 28,562 students in the 
United States and Canada in the college year 
1909-10 were in attendance upon voluntary 
Bible classes. Business men also are becoming 
aroused to the everyday value of the Bible. 
We find them by the thousands in organized 
Bible classes in the churches. Sixty-four 
thousand nine hundred and sixty men and boys 



122 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

were last year enrolled in the Young Men's 
Christian Association Bible classes in cities, 
Railroad Associations and the Army and 
Navy. The church is becoming aroused to give 
more systematic attention to the Bible than 
ever before. New courses of study and modern 
methods are being employed in the Sunday 
schools around the world, which embraced in 
1909 an enrolment of 27,888,000 students. 

Bible societies were never more active than 
at present. The British and Foreign Bible 
Society issued during the year 1909 six 
million copies of the Christian Scriptures. 
The New York Bible Society is supplying the 
Bible in thirty-six different languages to the 
immigrants landing at Ellis Island, thus dis- 
tributing to this new population in 1910 not 
less than 185,000 volumes of the Scriptures. 

Such widespread use of any book leads to 
thoughtfulness regarding the values which 
such literature must contain. Among the 
many profits from Bible study the following 
are peculiarly useful in our modern life. 

The Bible a Book or Good Cheer 

Some people seem to have a wrong concep- 
tion of the Bible. I have often noticed that 



VALUES OF BIBLE STUDY 123 

certain people who have never discovered this 
book by first-hand examination, lower their 
voices and look dismal and solemn whenever 
the Bible is mentioned. They speak of it with 
bated breath and one is reminded of deaths and 
funerals and the "worm that dieth not." The 
Bible is about as cheerful to some folks as any 
ordinary graveyard. I agree with Robert 
Louis Stevenson, who says that he likes this 
literature because "the Bible is a cheerful 
book; it is our little piping theologies, tracts 
and sermons," he adds, "that are dull and 
dowie." 

The Bible has peculiar power in taking the 
lines out of our careworn and anxious faces. 
It is always reminding men that they have 
wings if they would but use them: it gives us 
songs in the night. The Bible's "be of good 
cheer" is always shining into man's darkness 
with saving light. A man on a ship in the 
Indian seas told me that he had been lifted out 
of despair by finding in the Bible the hopeful 
verse, "Though your sins be as scarlet, they 
shall be as white as snow." But this sentiment 
of new hope and new life is one of the refrains 
of the Christian Scriptures. Jesus is a man 
of sorrows only to those people who forget He 



124 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

was the Friend of sinners, and was continually 
giving evidence of a deep joyousness which the 
world could neither give nor take away. 

We need this book of good cheer in our time. 
It would destroy many of our dyspeptic false 
alarm theories and many a personal vagary 
and fear if we could learn to go to it regularly 
and intelligently, as we go to other great books. 
Much of our conventional religion lacks this 
very attractive quality of fresh hopefulness, 
this gladsomeness, this radiant optimism which 
commends the Bible to wholesome men. J. 
Stuart Blackie said, "Our religion does not 
flap its wings freely before the Lord." I some- 
times like to take out on the train a Bible with 
a red cover which I use at times to counteract 
the impression that the Bible is only readable 
when it is bound in solemn, conventional, eccle- 
siastical looking Oxford leather. 

Read the Bible to find its songs. Its spirit 
is "Come, let us sing unto the Lord." Its great 
words are love, life, hope, praise, forgiveness, 
blessing, gladness. Love the Bible for its good 
cheer: underline its brightness: hear its deep 
vibrant message to men of all times — "Peace 
and good will." "Rejoice, and again I say 



VALUES OF BIBLE STUDY 125 

rejoice!'' "Let everything that hath breath 
praise the Lord!" 

The Guide to Friendship 

At one of our large universities I found, not 
long ago, five men who told me that for two 
years an upper classman had given to them 
his time and thought in a small Bible class. 
The leader was not an exceptional Bible 
scholar. In fact, he was not better informed in 
the Bible than some of the other men in the 
group. He was, however, a great friend. He 
took personal interest in every man in the class. 
When these men entered college as freshmen 
the leader invited them to his home ; he intro- 
duced them to his friends; he showed them 
about college ; he advised them concerning their 
work; he did not hesitate to sacrifice his own 
pleasure to be with them and to help them ; he 
gave up one vacation period to be with one of 
the members of his group who was ill. In this 
way he obtained their confidence and their love. 
Loyalty begets loyalty, and he never had any 
difficulty in keeping up the attendance in the 
class. This upper classman had just gradu- 
ated; but one of these five men told me that 
each member of the group had in turn formed 



126 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

a class in similar fashion, following the idea of 
friendly Bible study. Another of these five 
men said of his leader: "He was the best friend 
we had in college. We told him everything. 
His life influenced us far more than the life of 
any professor. We loved him for he really 
cared" 

The true Bible leader succeeds because he 
knows how to be a friend. The man who is 
indifferent to the Bible may not be indifferent 
to friendship. It is doubtful whether any key 
unlocks hearts and opens minds like that of 
genuine sympathy. A successful Bible teacher 
in New York said that his first move in inter- 
esting the members of his class in the Bible was 
to take an hour's walk with each man sepa- 
rately. He became acquainted with his men. 
He discovered their common interests. He 
found out their ambitions, their needs, their 
temptations. He won their personal regard. 
The rest was easy. 

This was the Divine Teacher's method in the 
first Bible group. He taught them by loving 
them. He led them by being with them. In 
Mark we read that He appointed twelve "that 
they might be with him." He gave them 
principles of teaching. But these precepts had 



VALUES OF BIBLE STUDY 127 

first been exemplified in His association with 
His disciples. When they said, "Teach us 
to pray," we remember that it was directly 
following one of the Master's long nights in 
prayer. The injunction to prayer was impres- 
sive ; but the example of prayer was contagious 
and irresistible. Jesus was the first Bible that 
the twelve studied. Friendship was "caught 
not taught" and when He said "these are they 
which bear witness of me," the Scripture be- 
came fascinating to the men who had learned 
its value in a life. 

Few opportunities offer greater and more 
permanent reward than the leadership of a 
Bible group of real friends. A new fine friend- 
ship is a worthy reward for the formation of 
a Bible class. Begin with two or three people 
in whom you are interested. Let the circle 
grow naturally. Do more outside the class 
than in the class. Magnify the human per- 
sonal element. Study the Bible friendships. 
Discern the Bible's great friendly themes — 
love, fatherhood, sympathy, self-sacrifice, ser- 
vice, brotherhood — all parts of a holy friend- 
ship. You will get much knowledge and in- 
spiration. You will also get something else — 
something for which men have suffered, and 



128 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

rejoiced, and grown great and powerful — the 
secret of true happiness, the renunciation of 
self for the sake of others. "Greater love hath 
no man than this, that a man lay down his life 
for his friends." Nor is there greater reason 
for Bible study than to learn how to be a friend. 
George Eliot's prayer is answered in a real 
Bible group : 

May I reach 
That purest heaven, be to other souls 
The cup of strength in some great agony; 
Enkindle generous ardor, feed pure love, 
Beget the smiles that have no cruelty — 
Be the sweet presence of a good diffused, 
And in diffusion ever more intense, 
So shall I join the choir invisible 
Whose music is the gladness of the world. 

Educational Values 

The Bible is in itself an education. Many 
nations have found the meaning of Chris- 
tianity by reading this book; they have also 
found here an unexcelled mental illumination, 
a book par excellence for literary culture, a 
poetry, a history, a series of striking pictures 
and biographies, a groundwork for life prin- 
ciples, a living literature, a philosophy of relig- 
ion based upon human experience with God. 
Whittier was right : 



VALUES OF BIBLE STUDY 129 

We search the world for truth; we cull 
The good, the pure, the beautiful 
From graven stone and written scroll, 
From all old flower-fields of the soul; 
And, weary seekers of the best, 
We come back laden from our quest, 
To find that all the sages said 
Is in the Book our mothers read. 

Our fathers recognized the educational value 
of the Bible by making it the chief book of 
instruction in their schools. Robert Louis 
Stevenson, when asked to name the books that 
had most influenced him from a literary view- 
point, gave the New Testament the chief place. 
But the intellectual values gained from Bible 
study are not limited to the acquirement of 
knowledge or to the absorption of a choice 
literary style. The Bible is a book of educa- 
tion because it induces thoughtfulness. Its 
themes unite our minds with the immensities 
and eternal loyalties of the world and time. 
The Bible is no shallow literature. It sinks 
our thought deep down into the very founda- 
tion ideas of our existence, in its mighty inter- 
rogations : "What is man that thou art mind- 
ful of him?" "What think ye of Christ?" 
"Am I my brother's keeper?" "For what shall 
a man be profited, if he shall gain the whole 
world, and forfeit his life? or what shall a man 



ISO COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

give in exchange for his life?" "If a man die, 
shall he live again?" 

In this day of much predigested literature 
we need the Bible to stir our minds and wills 
toward independent thought fulness. Behold 
the new era of social service, of public moral 
responsibility and political reform, of changed 
relation between church and ministry, of diver- 
sified thought concerning theology and action, 
of vast missionary uprisings. What does it 
mean to me as an individual? Have I thought 
my way through it? Have I interpreted the 
idea of God through it all? Am I able to state 
in terms of my own thinking the meaning, the 
scope of religion and the relationship between 
Bible religion and modern life? 

A Book or Action 

The Bible is not merely a gateway into fine 
emotions, thrills and ecstatic satisfactions. Its 
maxims are not simply good, they are good for 
something. This literature gives the picture, 
not of monks and recluses, but of crusaders 
going forth to holy wars, beckoning us to f ol- 
low in their train. Jesus stakes His entire 
theology upon doing the will of God. Active 



VALUES OF BIBLE STUDY 131 

obedience, He teaches, is the sole organ of 
spiritual knowledge. "If any man would come 
after me, let him deny himself and take up his 
cross daily, and follow me." His words to His 
disciples at the time of His most crucial spirit- 
ual battle in Gethsemane were, "Rise up, let us 
go." It is well to confront oneself and others 
with the question : What is the practical result 
of Bible study in the terms of serviceableness ? 
A college graduate who is doing a mighty work 
in the Far East, said that he received his first 
vision of his mission to the world in a small 
Bible group in a state institution of the Middle 
West. 

At a large Eastern university, during the 
past year, one hundred college men went out 
from their Bible classes to various forms of 
social and religious service in that and the sur- 
rounding towns. A Bible class today should 
be for Acts rather than for Romans — it should 
be attached to deeds rather than to theology. 
Enthusiastic, working Bible students are the 
first Bibles read by men indifferent to such 
study. A medical student in New York said 
to me, "I became interested in the Bible by see- 
ing the result in my friend's life of a regular 
daily habit of a half hour of Bible study every 



132 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

morning." By its fruits a successful Bible 
class gives its first reason for existence. 

Seeing Things Whole 

The Bible is rich in values for everyday life. 
It has always helped men to get a right use and 
a proper enjoyment of the world by giving a 
clear vision of things which count. Amid the 
confusions and commotions of the present day, 
human life must continually be steadied by the 
fact that "man shall not live by bread alone." 
Simply reading the history of the great moral 
epochs and spiritual crises of men who have 
"fought their doubts and gathered strength," 
who have triumphed over the phenomenal 
through a consciousness of the inner life, has 
always brought invigoration and incentive. 
Any influence is valuable that continually 
reminds men that battle is better than cap- 
tivity, and that conquest is more to be desired 
than the anarchy of uncontrolled passions. 
The Bible gives a true look into the realm of 
human experience. It acquaints us with the 
indestructible laws written in the hearts of 
men. It points unmistakably to the truth that 
makes men free. But the values of the Bible 



VALUES OF BIBLE STUDY 133 

are not merely general values ; neither are they 
so nebulous as to float vaguely in inscrutable 
mystery or in the region of specious sentiment. 
The Bible is profitable because it is practical, 
because its teachings are founded upon the rock 
of actual utility. 

Life Values, Moral Values 

The supreme question of every individual is 
the question of his character. "In the last 
analysis," said Justice Charles E. Hughes of 
the United States Supreme Court, "we must 
depend upon what men are in themselves and 
upon the restraints they enforce upon them- 
selves." The Bible is the first book upon 
virtue, and virtue is the basis of all strength. 
If, as Matthew Arnold asserts, conduct — "the 
simplest thing in the world, so far as knowledge 
is concerned, and the most difficult thing in 
the world, as far as doing is concerned" — alto- 
gether comprises "three fourths of human life," 
the truths of the Old and New Testament must 
bulk large in any system of profitable educa- 
tion. 

The line which runs through the Bible is the 
one of righteousness. It is the first book upon 



134 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

practice. It lifts the standards of daily living, 
and it shows how we may attain them. For 
this literature exerts peculiar ethical influence 
upon the systematic and thoughtful student. 
It is not only history, biography, poetry and 
marvelous narration; it is also a literature in- 
ducing decision. As no other book, the Bible 
arraigns ; it adds to enlightenment, conviction. 
It presents issues. Its culture has to do with 
the conscience and with the will. 

The Book of Religion 

The New York Sun has stated in an editorial 
that the great reason for the permanence of 
the Bible lies in the fact that the Bible contains 
the "Word of God." 

From various quarters we hear today that 
there is a genuine revival of religion going on 
among modern men. It is not revealing itself 
in open and sensational professions; it is not 
a thing of abstract formula; it has little to do 
with institutional authority ; it flies no pietistic 
flags and makes little use of ancient expres- 
sions of religion. Yet it is doubtless true that, 
as a modern thoughtful editor has said, "never 
before has man, enlightened as he now is by 



VALUES OF BIBLE STUDY 135 

science, faced with such a free mind the prob- 
lems of his origin and destiny." 

The times are religious, but it is the religion 
of life, not of creeds. God is becoming more 
and more the God of the living and not simply 
the God of the dead. Men are demanding a 
religion that helps now. Our American cli- 
mate is not conducive to the growth of the 
religions of effete civilizations and mere prom- 
ises of future blessedness. 

To answer this call of the times for religion, 
the Bible is presenting to all classes of men its 
eternal truth in modern ways of study. It is 
announcing the old but ever vital message t>f 
righteousness; and the world has never been 
able to get on without righteousness. But the 
Bible goes beyond ethics. It has to do with the 
message of God and the soul of man. It is 
saying to a time caught in materialism : Is not 
the life more than food, and the body than 
raiment? It is revealing to a man a world 
of unseen but very real values lying behind the 
world of phenomena. The Bible is uncovering 
anew the love of God in Jesus Christ. 

Last year, while in India, I asked a vener- 
able missionary, who had spent thirty years 
among those keen and intuitive men and worn- 



136 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

en, the most attractive and helpful idea in the 
Bible to Indians. He replied promptly, "The 
discovery that God loves them" 

The central message of the Bible is a relig- 
ious message to our human hearts. It is 

builded well 
On the deep bases of humanity. 

It is faith in God who really cares so much 
that He can and will obliterate a man's past 
and will so invigorate the potential energies of 
his soul that the man can do things which he 
never could do alone. Paul was humbled by 
his vision of Jesus, but he said, "I can do all 
things in him that strengthened me." The 
Bible is unique in that its truth lays hold of 
men's hidden possibilities and provokes new 
values. The man who will spend time studying 
the Gospels — the words of Christ — who will 
by an active use of his imagination try to 
reproduce the times and the circumstances and 
the message of that Life, that Healer, that 
Statesman, that Sufferer, that Divine Friend 
of sinners, — such a man will begin to believe 
anew in life, in himself, in others and in God. 
Such study will bring out the defaced ideals. 
It will add hope and courage and unquenchable 



VALUES OF BIBLE STUDY 137 

belief in the discovery of the truth as it is in 
Jesus. The Bible breeds no pessimists. It 
makes men live again in the life of a deep 
joyousness, in a peace calm as a river, in a hope 
indestructible through any worldly vicissitude, 
in a religion whose end and whose incentive is 
Jehovah. 

Down below the rush and confusion of 
events this is a thoughtful, grave time. It is a 
time of concern and quest. Questions which 
lie deep in inherent human consciousness — 
Bible questions — are arising and demanding 
answer by men who believe because they know. 
It is the time of great serviceableness for the 
men with a living Bible religion ; for their con- 
temporaries will listen to them on their knees, 
if they can truly witness as John witnessed, 
"We have beheld his glory." 



CHAPTER SIX 



THE CALL OF MODERN LIFE FOR BIBLE 
LEADERSHIP 



Behold Him now when He comes ! 

Not the Christ of our subtile creeds, 

But the Lord of our hearts, of our homes, 

Of our hopes, our prayers, our needs; 

The brother of want and blame, 

The lover of women and men, 

With a love that puts to shame 

All passions of mortal ken. 

— Richard Watson Gilder, "The Passing of Christ." 

Words of a friend from Chicago as President Lincoln was 
leaving Springfield for the White House: "Have not I com- 
manded thee? Be strong and of good courage; be not afraid, 
neither be thou dismayed; for the Lord thy God is with thee 
whithersoever thou goest. There shall not any man be able to 
stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, 
so will I be with thee." — S. Trevena Jackson. 

(Quoted from "Lincoln's Use of the Bible.") 

But one thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind, 
and stretching forward to the things which are before, I press 
on toward the goal. — Philippians Hi. 18, 1£. 

My power would fail were I not to support it by new achieve- 
ment. Conquest has made me what I am and conquest must 
maintain me. — Napoleon. 

The best of allies you can procure for us is the Bible. That 
will bring us the reality — freedom. — Garibaldi. 

Blessed Lord, who hast caused all Holy Scriptures to be 
written for our learning, grant that we may in such wise hear 
them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by 
patience and comfort of thy Holy Word, we may embrace and 
ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou 
hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen. — Collect 
from the Book of Common Prayer. 



CHAPTER SIX 

THE CALL OF MODERN LIFE FOR 
BIBLE LEADERSHIP 

The spirit of our time is one of serious moral 
earnestness. Mere liberality that has learned 
to hate nothing, not even sin, is not enough for 
this age of religious quest and insistent reality. 
The watchword of today is self-forgetting 
action, and the wide interests of the brother- 
hood of men. Lincoln said, "We are for the 
man and for the dollar, but if we have to choose 
we are for the man." In these exacting times, 
these days of complex and diverse calls and 
opportunities, the great word is leadership — 
leadership of thinking men. 

Present Day Problems 

Transitions in systems of thought are all 
about us. Indeed it is well that men are forced 
to think their way through. Emerson said 
that a sect or a party was an "elegant incognito 
to save a man from the vexation of thinking." 
But not such can be the Christian church. The 
church is revising its creeds. Public life is 



142 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

examining its foundations. A new education 
both in spirit and method is being evolved in 
the Occident as well as in the Orient. Psychol- 
ogy, sociology, modern inventive science, out- 
reaching movements for missions and evangel- 
ism are rapidly changing viewpoints. The 
unthinking and supine person was never more 
out of place than in the midst of modern world 
movements. But thoughtful, constructive, 
serious leadership — leadership which does not 
merely point out weakness, but does something 
about it j is the insistent call of the nations. 

In such vast reaches of privilege and need, I 
present the opportunity for leadership — 
church-wide, nation-wide, world-wide Bible 
leadership — for the sake of impressing deeply 
upon our time the serious and vital truths of 
existence. 

In Bible leadership inspiration and service 
go hand in hand. When these two are sun- 
dered, or when one side is emphasized at the ex- 
pense of the other, there is no real and abiding 
progress. 

The Bible must first have individual ex- 
amples in persons to whom it has become a 
living and transforming influence. To inau- 
gurate external reforms in advance of inner in- 




w < 
H «2 



MODERN BIBLE LEADERSHIP 143 

dividual transformation is to place second 
things first. The First Great Commandment 
relates to personal religion; the Second Com- 
mandment to social religion. The Bible speaks 
primarily to individual conscience and to the 
hearts of persons alone. It accompanies us 
into those spiritual conflicts which no man can 
share with us. The Bible must always be per- 
sonal history to begin with, the history of our- 
selves "writ large." It is always connected 
with that priceless peace of mind which re- 
mains unstirred by the cries of the world, the 
peace which continually leads the soul out of 
confusion to "pastures green and by waters of 
rest." 

Yet on the other hand, to be satisfied with 
self-inspection, "armchair philosophy," and 
individual religion is to check advance. It is 
quite un- Christian. The Bible herein affords 
the guide for leadership, for this book is not 
a mere academic book. It springs out of life 
and it must return to life. Its message is a 
driving, insistent moving message for men to 
follow Jesus — the Christ — who came not to be 
ministered unto, but to minister, and to give 
His life for the people. The field of the Bible 
is the world. Its ideal is the brotherhood of 



144 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

man. Its inspiration is in the presence of our 
Heavenly Father. It tells us that the earth is 
the Lord's, and describes it as a place where we 
are to do with our might what our hands find 
to do. Its aim is righteousness and its dynamic 
is renunciation. It demands men like those 
who marched singing the Marseillaise, who 
"knew how to die" for their faith. The leaders 
must be greatly increased in number who can 
teach and apply the Bible to business, to mis- 
sions, to journalism, to economics, to schools, 
and to the vexing questions of church and gov- 
ernment and home. 

Our modern life demands a revision of per- 
sonal ideas about God and man, quite as much 
as it demands a revision of the tariff. The 
Bible speaks plainly concerning the things 
which hinder and things which help toward 
spiritual and national progress. It keeps mo- 
tives, private and public, pure and clean. 
Bible leadership is unselfish leadership. It 
calls for times of independent and personal 
preparation. It costs pleasures and it some- 
times brings pain. The educated man has 
many demands upon his effort. He turns to 
the Bible at a sacrifice. Is there anything 
which college graduates of various professions 




i *. 



MODERN BIBLE LEADERSHIP 145 

and callings can do as Bible leaders that is of 
superior and unique value to our times? In- 
deed much will be required by this age of men 
to whom something has been given by way of 
training or experience or influence. 

The Teaching Profession 

The teacher holds a place of leadership for 
Bible study promotion. Not only can he per- 
meate his subject-matter by a lofty style and 
tone caught from the Bible, but he can also 
utilize his knowledge and methods of trans- 
ferring truth, and make this Book live in the 
consciousness of at least a small circle in 
church, or home, or school. He can open a 
questionnaire among the students of his de- 
partment for the discussion of biblical ques- 
tions in the light of modern thinking and 
modern action. He can suggest to students 
reference literature upon intellectual and Bible 
questions. He can make his home a center for 
the study of the Bible, and its interpretation. 
He can assist his students to adjust their 
thinking in view of new discoveries of the 
meaning of the Bible. He can become a real 
student of religious education, than which 



146 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

there is no more increasingly fascinating topic 
in modern educational life. 

The teacher can also share in a new vocation 
— a vocation demanded by a new interest in the 
Bible — a vocation of Bible teacher training. 
He can become a teacher of teachers. Given 
competent teachers, men and women from 
practically any or every department of life will 
study the Bible. The multiplying of his own 
life work by selecting and carefully training a 
few men effectively to teach the Bible in a 
given community, this is statesmanlike Bible 
leadership for the modern instructor. 

Men of Science 

The men with scientific temper, "fact sense," 
who would prove all things, and hold fast to 
that which is good, are much needed in the 
modern Bible enterprise. Their function is 
fundamental. They can bring scientific 
thoughtfulness, method and accuracy to the 
Bible. They can help to separate fact from 
prejudice, from specious opinions, and from 
meaningless platitudes. A scientific man will 
study the Bible with a passion for exact truth. 
He will teach a method of approach to the 
Bible which is similar to the approach which 



MODERN BIBLE LEADERSHIP 147 

he makes to other great books and subjects. 
He will ask : "What happened ?" "What were 
the actual facts in relation to this incident or 
in relation to that period of Bible history?" 

Ignorance of Bible facts has delayed the 
advance of biblical truth among thinking men 
and has frequently buried pure religion be- 
neath a mass of ill-digested, theoretical and 
dogmatic debris. The Bible has proved its 
power to endure the full light of intellectual 
investigation. Indeed it challenges clear 
thought. It is not a book for priests and pro- 
fessional religionists only. It is a book for 
every type of mind. The Bible is not a magi- 
cal relic or a fetish of other-worldliness. The 
Bible is straight good sense. It is the message 
of Him who said, "I am the truth." While 
the Bible is not a text-book of science in gen- 
eral, it does contain the first and most im- 
portant facts in a science of religion, and to 
present these facts in a clear, thoughtful, and 
sensible way, is the part of scientific procedure 
as well as a religious exercise. Jesus was intel- 
lectually alive. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy 
God with all thy mind" He declares. In our 
Bible study we need increasingly Tennyson's 
injunction: 



148 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

Let knowledge grow from more to more 
But more of reverence in us dwell: 
That mind and soul according well, 

May make one music as before, 

But vaster. 

When scientific men of the type of Sir Oliver 
Lodge realize more deeply their responsibility 
for Bible interpretation and Bible leadership, 
there will come among thoughtful persons a 
larger and more fruitful acceptance and appli- 
cation of the truth as it is in Jesus Christ. 

Literary Men and the Bible 

The leadership of literary men has always 
been a necessary and potent factor in biblical 
progress. Although our colleges, especially 
our technical schools, have given the depart- 
ment of literature slight attention of late, the 
apostle of quiet and delightful studies has a 
distinct mission as a discoverer and interpreter 
of the Bible in terms of artistic life and beauty. 
As a disciple of imagination and ideals the man 
of letters can see meanings in the Bible quite 
obscured to the man of science. Charles Dar- 
win, who confessed that he had practically in- 
capacitated himself for appreciating musical 
and literary art, because of his steady concen- 



MODERN BIBLE LEADERSHIP 149 

tration upon scientific subjects, is not only a 
notable example of the results of long-con- 
tinued attention to any one department of 
learning, but his witness suggests the inability 
of any single class of men to fully grasp the 
entire message of the Bible. 

This book of insight, imagination, poetry 
and delicate symbolism is the book for the seer 
and the lover of pure letters. Not only have a 
multitude of literary men given the Bible the 
first place in their preparation as did Shakes- 
peare, Ruskin, Milton, Tolstoy, and Victor 
Hugo, but such men have been able to reflect in 
immortal verse and prose the literary pictures, 
the dreams, the romance, the spiritual interest, 
and the undying songs and hope of the Bible. 
Let the modern men of letters study Job and 
John, Isaiah and Jesus, in order to review them 
with fresh inspiration for our readers of today. 
It would be hard to find a more attractive or 
uplifting piece of literature than Edwin Mark- 
ham's magazine papers upon "The Poetry of 
Jesus." 

The Bible moulds our age, not simply by the 
records of its historic facts, but by the glowing 
inspiration of its literary ideas. The library 
is as mighty as the laboratory. Literary values 



150 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

are spiritual values, and these permeate the 
Bible. Such truth indeed energizes and directs 
the deeper life of any age. Here is a literature 
of insight, and it cannot be fully opened with- 
out the aid of the man with literary vision. 

Every department of English in our colleges 
should contribute to the greater Bible. Jour- 
nalism should discover and translate the Bible 
into the popular tongue. Authors and maga- 
zine writers should assist in transferring the 
truths of the Bible to everyday life. Every 
book lover should gather "sweetness and light" 
from this "flower field of the soul," not simply 
for others, but also for the sake of his own 
mental resources. While no speaker, be he 
preacher or lecturer or statesman, can afford 
to omit a thoroughgoing study of the works 
and the style of Him, of whom His enemies 
said, "Never man spake like this man." 

The Christian Minister as a Bible Leader 

The opportunity for Bible leadership comes 
with increasing significance to the mod- 
ern preacher of the gospel. His ministry may 
well become a teaching ministry. If the shep- 
herd ignores the Bible as a modern means for 



MODERN BIBLE LEADERSHIP 151 

evangelism, for training, for service, and for 
spiritual and religious culture, the Christian 
flock will go hungry. It will also be quite 
likely to go astray. Moreover the minister will 
surely be handicapped in his effort to secure 
laymen for Bible teaching. The pastor of a 
large congregation will often say, "I am too 
busy to lead a Bible class," but in the light of 
modern conditions and Bible interest, ought he 
be too busy? Is a thorough study of the vital 
principles of Christianity less important than 
preaching, or pastoral calls, or committee 
meetings, or social gatherings? 

Gov. Woodrow Wilson, former president of 
Princeton, analyzed closely the call of our 
modern times when he said: "Do you know 
that all over this country there is a search for 
principles; not a search for expedients, not a 
search for selfishness, not a search by men who 
are seeking to get something which will be 
for their own selfish aggrandizement, but a 
search for someone, some body of men, some 
party of men who will set up again the ancient 
standards of principles?" 

The minister of the gospel who fails to 
realize that his most powerful and attractive 
message must be the great universe-old prin- 



152 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

ciples of Christianity found in the Bible, will 
have small part in the leadership of these times. 
We find the centers of strong modern influ- 
ences, not in vast mass meetings and public 
gatherings, but in small groups of thoughtful 
men personally discovering in study and 
serious discussion the deep and simple truths 
of God and human relationships. 

Jesus left the multitude when they clamored 
for Him that He might teach and train twelve 
men in that early Bible training class. A 
minister of my acquaintance discovered this 
fact a few years ago, and has since turned his 
morning service into a great Bible study de- 
partment. He is becoming a trainer of Bible 
teachers, and his church Sunday mornings, 
after a brief time of worship, is filled with 
dozens of groups of men and women and chil- 
dren, who are learning individually the mean- 
ing of Christianity by the study of the great 
Christian Book. He is giving the Bible dignity 
by placing it first. 

Where are we to look for trained Christian 
and Bible study leadership, if not in the 
church? A clergyman who, for three years, 
has been teaching in his church a large 
Bible class of business and professional men, 



MODERN BIBLE LEADERSHIP 153 

told me that this teaching was his greatest busi- 
ness and his most profitable ministry. His 
church has far more men than women upon its 
rolls of membership. Ninety men from this 
class have united with the church. Every de- 
partment of church life draws upon that class 
for its vital support. The study enlists busi- 
ness men and introduces them into the board of 
trustees and eldership. It raises up young men 
to lead in the young people's societies. The 
class supports a missionary, and spreads sane 
and fresh intelligence in regard to missions 
through the church and community. That 
pastor of that large church in a sense did not 
have time to lead a Bible class, but he took time, 
and his Bible work and Bible training have 
become his chief contributions to modern life. 

Bible Leadership by College Men and 
Alumni 

The present widespread revival of Bible 
study in the colleges causes our period to 
demand leadership in this Bible enterprise, 
especially from college alumni of whatever 
profession or business, the men who for four 
years have been trying to learn how to study, 
how to think and how to lead. 



154 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

. Wendell Phillips heard Lyman Beecher 
preach in Boston and going to his home threw 
himself upon the floor, crying, "O God, Thou 
hast a great work for me!" I can hardly see 
how any man from the student world can look 
out upon the present-day opportunity without 
being stirred with a like conviction. The Bible 
challenges educated men everywhere to a vast 
world-wide alliance. Thirty hundred Ameri- 
can college men — Bible class leaders and Bible 
work organizers in the United States and 
Canada are conducting each college year 
within their respective institutions, strong cam- 
paigns to bring a knowledge of the Christian 
Scriptures to the attention of 180,000 students! 
These college graduates must be depended 
upon at least to assist in leading the Bible cam- 
paigns of the church. They are acquainted 
with the kind of Bible courses, methods of in- 
struction and teacher training which have suc- 
ceeded among thoughtful men. These college 
men, while in college and after graduation, 
must be responsible to the church and to so- 
ciety for Bible progress in these progressive 
times of brotherhoods and missions, which or- 
ganizations to be successful must build their 
foundations upon the knowledge and greatness 



MODERN BIBLE LEADERSHIP 155 

of God. Here is a vast and open door for the 
educated Bible leader. 

One of these college alumni, a lawyer, an 
eminent athlete while in a New England col- 
lege, has been leading a Bible class once a week 
in his college clubhouse in New York. 

Another university graduate, a business 
man, became conscious soon after graduation 
that little or no real Bible study was being 
accomplished by the men in his church. He 
called a few young men together and founded 
a class for systematic Bible study, using books 
and plans with which he had become familiar 
during his student days. This class, after four 
years of successful organization and study, 
numbers over one hundred members, and has 
become a potent force, both in the church, 
and in the community. 

A student in the Middle West, who led a 
notable Bible movement in a representative 
state university, has given his life to Bible 
leadership in another nation. The Bible work 
of one of our unique and strategic North 
American institutions has been sustained and 
advanced for three years by an instructor who 
was especially interested in Bible study in 
college, and being called back after graduation 



156 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

to his institution as a teacher, gives a gener- 
ous portion of his time to the training of Bible 
teachers who meet in his own home each week. 
Indeed the church and our larger communi- 
ties are just beginning to feel the impress of 
the Bible enthusiasm and training which has 
been in progress within our colleges during the 
past few years. When the intelligent leader- 
ship of these men is combined with the able and 
devoted cooperation of pastors, superintend- 
ents of schools, and leaders of Christian 
enterprises, we shall have a new era of Bible 
interest. The present student Bible move- 
ment in the colleges is only half successful 
if it leads men to Bible study and Bible pro- 
motion only while they are undergraduates. 
With such training there must come a sense of 
obligation for larger tasks. A Bible group in 
college exists not simply for the sake of indi- 
vidual students, but quite as truly for the sake 
of the larger life outside college walls, which 
these students are bound to deeply influence. 
To furnish a Bible leadership of thinking men 
for the world today should become an ever 
expanding objective, in both the voluntary and 
prescribed branches of our collegiate religious 
education. 




X X 

* e 

g.'S 






MODERN BIBLE LEADERSHIP 157 

Bible Leadership in World Movements 

We are feeling now a peculiar and growing 
sense of imminence and exigency in the world- 
wide movements of philanthropic, of moral, 
and of religious reform. People everywhere 
are beginning to appreciate that "All the world 
is one country," as the Italian proverb declares. 
A possession of knowledge, power or experi- 
ence in any part of the universe is becoming 
a challenge toward new and higher tasks. The 
question presses, will this new patriotism born 
of rich inheritances and unmeasured opportuni- 
ties be sufficiently vitalized actually to light the 
fires of deep religious fervor around the world? 
Certainly these new stirrings will be found 
wanting unless Bible study and the obligation 
of Bible leadership shall possess the minds and 
hearts of those who are at the head of such 
movements. Mission work at home or abroad 
without Bible culture or Bible training, which 
brings and maintains the great spiritual reali- 
ties, is machinery — simply business machinery, 
and it is sure to run down. Reform movements 
whether in politics, education, religion or the 
home, which merely touch life through external 
pressure, are temporizing with their privileges. 



158 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

Indeed these great modern crusades are in 
peril of being satisfied with money and methods 
and newspaper notices rather than aspiring to 
become deep channels through which the richest 
human and divine messages may flow through 
the earth. Our world movements represent 
great present-day possibilities, but these possi- 
bilities are only valuable when they can be 
cashed into terms of spiritual life and religious 
power. The passage of laws, great executive 
genius, and splendid buildings are like formal 
ethical theories, inadequate when the world is 
calling for elemental principles and Christian 
righteousness as an eternal foundation. 

Moral reform counts for permanence only 
as it contributes peace of mind, great ideas that 
comfort and inspire, visions in the night which 
lift us out of the commonplace and make us 
glad that we are alive; noble impulses that 
drive us to action, and to such conduct, no 
matter what the cost, as satisfies the demands 
of the soul. And these come not, save by 
prayer and fasting. 

In all our splendid world's work, therefore, 
in all our modern experiments of representa- 
tive government, in all our forging ahead and 
criticising and upholding and aspiring, there is 



MODERN BIBLE LEADERSHIP 159 

an essential leadership based upon the experi- 
mental and applied realization of these great 
Christian documents. These words instinct 
with divine life are within us like the true 
Greek fire which no waters can quench. They 
purge our hearts at the same time that they 
light our path toward the City which hath 
foundations, whose builder and maker is God. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



GRADED BIBLE STUDY COURSES 

The courses grouped below are so arranged that the 
use of one course from each series will give a compre- 
hensive view of the Bible. 

Introductory Courses 

^Studies in the Life of Jesus Christ. 
Bosworth. 

Life and Works of Jesus According to St. Mark. 
Murray. 

* Studies in the Life of Christ. 
Sharman. 

Second Series 

New Studies in Acts. 
Bosworth. 

Truth of the Apostolic Gospel. 
Falconer. 

Life of St. Paul. 
Leacock. 

Third Series 

The Work and Teachings of the Earlier Prophets. 
Kent and Smith. 

Men of the Old Testament. 

WlLLMAN. 



164 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

The Book of Isaiah. 
Robinson. 

Ten Studies in the Psalms. 
McFadyen. 

* Studies in Old Testament Characters. 
White. 

Fourth Series 

*Studies in the Teaching of Jesus and His Apostles. 
Bosworth. 

The WiU of God. 
Wright. 

Social Teachings of Jesus. 
Jenks. 

Note. — For all courses indicated with an asterisk 
suggestive outlines for leaders will be furnished free 
upon request to Student Department Bible Study, 124 
East 28th Street, New York. 

Description and price of each of the above courses 
will be found on the following pages. 

DESCRIPTION AND PRICES OF BIBLE 
COURSES 

Any of the Bible Study Courses described below will 
be sent (postage prepaid) from the Association Press, 
124 East 28th Street, New York City, on receipt of the 
price indicated. In lots of ten or more a reduction of 
10 per cent will be allowed, and they will be sent by 
prepaid express. 

All courses in this list are arranged for daily study. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 165 

Life of Christ 

Studies in the Life of Jesus Christ. 

E. I. Bosworth. Cloth, .90; paper, .60 

A course having a very wide and acceptable use, based 
mainly upon Mark's gospel, although containing many 
references to each of the others. It may be completed 
in thirty weeks, or it may be divided into three courses 
of about ten weeks each. 

Life and Works of Jesus. 

W. D. Murray. Cloth, .75; paper, .50 

This course has wide use among those beginning the 
systematic study of the Life of Christ. It may be com- 
pleted in twenty-six weeks, and is based upon the Gos- 
pel of Mark. 

Studies in the Life of Christ. 

H. B. Sharman. 
This course has thirty studies and is based on a Harmony 
of the Gospels for historical study by Stevens and Bur- 
ton. Sold in sets. Cloth, $1.25; paper, .75. Studies 
alone, cloth, .75; Harmony alone, cloth, $1.00. Paper 
books not sold separately. 

The Acts and the Epistles 

Life of St. Paul. 

A. G. Leacock. Cloth, .75; paper, .50 

Twenty-three weeks of very helpful studies, used with 
acceptance both in preparatory schools and colleges. 



166 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

New Studies in Acts. 

E. I. Bosworth. Cloth, .75; paper, .50 

A course intended to replace Studies in the Acts and 
Epistles by the same author. Contains nineteen studies. 

Studies in the Life of Paul. 

W. H. Sallmon. Cloth, .40; paper, .25 

This course has twenty-four lessons. 

Old Testament 

The Book of Isaiah. 

George L. Robinson. Cloth, .75; paper, .50 

A new course of study with outlines for fifteen weeks. 

Men of the Old Testament. 

L. K. Willman. Cloth, .75; paper, .50 

Especially adapted to those beginning the study of the 
Old Testament. Contains work for eighteen weeks. 

The Work and Teachings of the Earlier Prophets. 
Kent and Smith. Cloth, .60; paper, .40 

Contains a suggestive arrangement of the message and 
work of the early Hebrew prophets. A fourteen weeks' 
course. 

Ten Studies in the Psalms. 

J. E. McFadyen. Cloth, .60; paper, .40 

Ten psalms are studied with a view to their personal 
religious message. Ten weeks. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 167 

Studies in Old Testament Characters. 

W. W. White. Cloth, .90; paper, .60 

Hebrew history is taken up through the study of the 
representative men of the Old Testament. A thirty 
weeks' course. 

Wisdom Literature of the Old Testament. 

H. T. Fowler. Cloth, .60; paper, .40 

These studies deal with the books of Job, Proverbs and 
Ecclesiastes. The course may be completed in ten 
weeks. 

Leaders of Israel. 

G. L. Robinson. Cloth, .75; paper, .50 

This course deals with the history of Israel, and the 
character of her leading men. It contains a number of 
maps and charts. Twenty-five weeks' work. 

Teachings of Jesus and the Apostles 

Teaching of Jesus and His Apostles. 

E. I. Bosworth. Cloth, .75; paper, .50 

These studies present most invigoratingly and thought- 
fully such topics as the Relation between Christ and 
Men, the Kingdom of God, the Resurrection, the Holy 
Spirit, Prayer and the Future Life. It is especially 
commended to students having studied the Life of Christ. 
Thirty weeks' work. 

The WiU of God. 

H. B. Wright. Cloth, .90; paper, .60 

The issues involved in the knowing and doing of God's 



168 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

will as interpreted by Jesus and His Apostles are here 
presented. These outlines have been useful in life-work 
decisions. Twenty-five weeks. 

Social Teachings of Jesus. 

J. W. Jenks. Cloth, .75; paper, .50 

A discussion of modern social and political problems in 
the light of the words of Christ. This book is intended 
for discussional purposes, chiefly, and should be preceded 
by a thorough, systematic study of the life of Christ. 
A twelve weeks' course. 

Apologetics and Personal, Evangelism 

Truth of the Apostolic Gospel. 

R. A. Falconer. Cloth, .75; paper, .50 

A course in apologetics which has been a help toward 
the understanding of and the belief in the gospel mes- 
sage of the New Testament. It contains thirty weeks' 
work. 

Introducing Men to Christ. 

W. D. Weatherford. .50 

Studies for Personal Workers. 

H. A. Johnston. Cloth, .66; paper, .45 

Especially helpful as a guide to practical Christian 
work. A twenty weeks' course. 

God's Methods of Training Workers. 

H. A. Johnston. Cloth, .75; paper, .50 

Suggestions of value are given in this book to inde- 
pendent Christian workers. Illustrations are drawn both 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 169 

from the Bible and the life of today. It may be covered 
in twenty- two weeks. 

Special Courses 

Great Events in the Life of Christ. 

James McConaughy. Cloth, .75; paper, .50 

Twenty-five weeks' daily study in the principal events 
of the Gospels. A new course. 

Christ in Everyday Life. 

E. I. Bosworth. Cloth, .50 

A course of study for daily readings covering thirty-five 
weeks. Especially recommended for vacation study or 
for use in connection with "The Morning Watch." 

Courses not Arranged for Daily Study 

Studies in the Life of Jesus. 

W. H. Sallmon. Cloth, .40; paper, .25 

Twenty-five studies with special maps. 

Studies of the Man Christ Jesus. 

R. E. Speer. Cloth, .65 

A stimulating study of the Life of Jesus in seven main 
divisions. 

Principles of Jesus. 

R. E. Speer. Cloth, .80 

A study of the principles of Jesus as applied to every- 
day life. Over fifty topics are taken up. 



170 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

Studies of the Man Paul. 

R. E. Speer. Cloth, .65 

Suggestive studies giving the work, characteristics and 
methods of the Great Apostle. 

Life Questions of High School Boys. 

J. W. Jenks. Cloth, .40 

(Especially valuable for leaders who are teaching pre- 
paratory or high school boys.) 

Bible Studies in Preparation 

Studies for College Men upon the Life of Christ. 
Studies for Medical Students. 
Bible Outlines for Law Students. 
Practical Discussions on Christianity for Graduate 
Students. 

BIBLE REFERENCE LITERATURE 

Suggested lists of books for Bible reference libraries 
may be secured by addressing Student Department 
Bible Study, 124 East 28th Street, New York City. 

Any of the books given below may be secured from 
Association Press, 124 East 28th Street, New York 
City, at the price indicated. 

Old Testament 

Introduction 

Biblical Introduction. Bennet and Adeney. New 

edition announced. $2.00 

The Literature of the Old Testament. Driver. 2.50 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 171 

A Short Introduction to the Literature of the Bible. 

Moulton. $1.00 

Introduction to the Old Testament. McFadyen. 1.25 
Old Testament History. Wade. 1.50 

The Bible as English Literature. Gardiner. 1.50 

Prophets 

Old Testament Prophecy. Davidson. 3.50 

Book of the Twelve Prophets. Smith. (2 vols.) 

Each .60 

Prophets of Israel. Cornill. .90 

Messages of the Earlier Prophets. Sanders and 

Kent. 1.25 

The Minor Prophets. Eiselen. 2.00 

Doctrine of the Prophets. Kirkpatrick. 1.75 

Religion of Babylon and Assyria. Rogers. 2.00 

(Especially in its relations to Israel.) 
The Great Teachers of Judaism and Christianity. 

Kent. .75 

Prophecy and the Prophets in Their Historical 

Relations. Eiselen. 1.50 

The Minor Prophets. Farrar. (Men of the Bible 

Series.) .65 

Psalms and Wisdom Literature 

The Messages of the Psalmists. McFadyen. 1.25 

The Psalms in Human Life. Prothero. (Every- 
man's Library.) .42 
The Epic of the Inner Life. Genung. 2.00 
The Hebrew Literature of Wisdom. Genung. 2.00 



172 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

New Testament 
Introduction 

A Critical Introduction to the New Testament. 

Peake. * $ .75 

Introduction to the New Testament. Dods. .75 

A Short Introduction to the Gospels. Burton. 1.00 

Introduction to New Testament. Bacon. 1.00 

The Study of the Gospels. Robinson. .90 
Introduction to the New Testament. Zahn. 

(3 vols.) 12.00 
History of New Testament Times in Palestine. 

Mathews. 1.00 
In the Time of Christ; Sketches of Jewish Social 

Life. Edersheim. .60 

Theology of the New Testament. Stevens. 2.50 
Introduction to Literature of the New Testament. 

Moffatt. 2.50 

Life of Christ 

Life of Christ. Stalker. .50 

The Life and Times of Jesus. Edersheim. 2.00 

The Student Life of Jesus. Gilbert. .60 

Life of Christ. Farrar. 1.50 

The Life of Jesus. Holtzmann. 4.00 

The Man Christ Jesus. Speer. .65 

In the Days of His Flesh. Smith. 2.00 

Outlines of the Life of Christ. Sanday. 1.00 

The Ethics of Jesus. King. 1.50 

The Character of Jesus. Bushnell. .60 

The Kingdom of God. Bruce. 2.00 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 173 

Jesus and the Gospel. Denney. $1.25 

The Principles of Jesus. Speer. .60 

The Life of Christ. Dawson. 1.50 

The Life of the Master. Watson. 2.50 

Jesus Christ and the Christian Character. Pea- 
body. .60 
Earliest Sources of the Life of Jesus. Burkett. .50 
The Jewish People in the Time of Christ. Schwier. 

(5 vols.) 8.00 

A. History of the Jewish People. Maccabean and 

Roman Periods. Riggs. 1.25 

The Life of Jesus of Nazareth. Rhees. 1.25 

Studies in the Life of Christ. Fairbairn. 1.25 

Why Four Gospels. Gregory. 1.00 



The Early Church 

Life of St. Paul. Stalker. .50 

Paul the Ail-Round Man. Speer. .50 

The Life and Epistles of St. Paul. Conybeare and 

Howson. 1.25 

St. Paul,, the Traveler and the Roman Citizen. 

Ramsay. 3.00 

The Cities of Paul. Ramsay. 3.00 

Neglected Factors in the Study of the Early Prog- 
ress of Christianity. Orr. 1.25 
St. Paul. Iverach. .65 
Life and Works of St. Paul. Farrar. 1.75 
St. Paul's Conception of Christianity. Bruce. 2.00 
Pauline Theology. Stevens. 2.00 
Apostolic Church. Thatcher. 1.25 



174 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

Apostolic Church. Bartlet. $2.00 

The Apostolic Age. Purves. 1.25 

Commentaries 

The One Volume Bible Commentary. Dummelow. 2.50 

Cambridge Bible Series. (49 vols.) Each .40 to 2.00 

Expositor's Bible Series. (49 vols.) Each .60 

The New Century Bible. (23 vols.) Each .75 

Modern Reader's Bible. (22 vols.) Cloth, each, 

.50; leather .60 

The Bible for Home and School. Edited by 

Mathews. .50 to .75 

The Westminster New Testament. .75 

Commentaries on the Old Testament 

Genesis. (Westminster Series.) Driver. 4.00 

Genesis. (International Critical Com.) Skinner. 3.00 

Exodus. (Westminster Series.) McNeile. 3.50 

Numbers. (International Critical Com.) Gray. 3.00 
Deuteronomy. (International Critical Com.) 

Driver. 3.00 
Judges. (International Critical Com.) Moore. 3.00 
Samuel. (International Critical Com.) Smith. 3.00 
Kings. (Cambridge Bible.) Lumby. 1.25 
Kings. (Cambridge Bible.) Barnes. 1.25 
Chronicles. (Cambridge Bible.) Barnes. 1.00 
Chronicles. (International Critical Com.) Cur- 
tis. 3.00 
Ezra and Nehemiah. (Cambridge Bible.) Ryle. 1.00 
Esther. (International Critical Com.) Paton. 2.25 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 175 

Job. (New Century Bible.) Peake. $ .90 

Job. (Cambridge Bible.) Davidson. 1.00 

Job. (International Critical Com.) Driver. (In 

preparation.) 
Psalms. (Cambridge Bible.) Kirkpatrick. 2.00 

Psalms. (New Century Bible.) Davison. 

(2 vols.) Each .90 

Proverbs. (International Critical Com.) Toy. 3.00 
Ecclesiastes. (International Critical Com.) Bar- 
ton. 2.25 
Ecclesiastes. (Cambridge Bible.) Plumptre. 1.00 
Song of Solomon. (Cambridge Bible.) Harper. .50 
Isaiah. (Cambridge Bible.) Skinner. (2 vols.) 

each 1.00 

Ezekiel. (Cambridge Bible.) Davidson. 1.00 

Daniel. (Cambridge Bible.) Driver. 1.00 

Minor Prophets. (Whedon Series.) Eiselen. 2.00 

Joel and Amos. (Cambridge Bible.) Driver. 1.00 

Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, 

Malachi. (New Century.) Driver. .90 

Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah. (Cambridge 

Bible.) Davidson. .50 

Commentaries on the New Testament 

Matthew. Allen. 3.00 

Matthew. Plummer. 3.00 

Mark. Swete. 3.75 

Mark. Gould. 2.50 

The Earliest Gospel (Mark). Mengies. 2.75 

Mark. Bruce. (Expositor's Greek Testament, 

Vol. I.) 7.50 



176 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

Luke. Plummer. $3.00 

John. Godet. (3 vols.) 6.75 

John. Westcott. 3.50 
John. Dods. (Expositor's Greek Testament, Vol. 

I.) 7.50 

Acts. Rackham. 4.50 

Acts. Knowling. (Expositor's Greek Testament, 

Vol. II.) 7.50 

Romans. Sanday. 3.00 

Romans. Williams. 2.00 

Romans. Denney. (Expositor's Greek Testament, 

Vol. II.) 7.50 

Galatians. Lightfoot. 3.25 

Ephesians and Colossians. Abbott. 2.50 

Philippians. Vincent. 2.00 

Philippians. Lightfoot. 3.25 

Colossians and Philemon. Lightfoot. 3.25 

The Social Gospel 

The Church and the Changing Order. Mathews. 1.50 

The Church and the Social Problem. Plantz. 1.25 

The Gospel and the Modern Man. Mathews. 1.50 

Christianity and Social Questions. Cunningham. .75 

Christianity and the Social Crisis. Rauschenbush. 1.50 
Social Duties from the Christian Point of View. 

Henderson. 1.25 

Messianic Hope in the New Testament. Mathews. 2.50 

Ecce Homo. Seeley. 1.00 

The Next Great Awakening. Strong. .75 

Social Teachings of Jesus. Mathews. .60 

Teaching of Jesus. Stevens. 1.00 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 177 

Jesus Christ and the Social Question. Peabody. $ .60 
The Approach to the Social Question. Peabody. 1.25 

Social Law in the Spiritual World. Jones. 1.25 

Devotional Books 

Devotional Use of the Holy Scriptures. Gibson. .50 

The Still Hour. Phelps. .50 

Thoughts for Every Day Living. Babcock. 1.00 

Decision of Character. Foster. .50 

Leaves for Quiet Hours. Matheson. 1.25 

Times of Retirement. Matheson. .60 

Moments on the Mount. Matheson. 1.25 

Rests by the River. Matheson. 1.25 
Drummond's Addresses. 

Imitation of Christ, a Kempis. 1.00 

Imago Christi. Stalker. 1.25 

With Christ in the School of Prayer. Murray. .35 

Abide in Christ. Murray. .85 

Prayer: Its Nature and Scope. Trumbull. .50 

The Master of the Heart. Speer. 1.00 

The Evangelistic Note. Dawson. 1.25 

Teaching of Bible Classes 

The Teacher's Philosophy in and out of School. 

Hyde. .35 

How to Teach the Bible. Gregory. .15 

Teaching and Teachers. Trumbull. 1.10 

Talks to Teachers. James. 1.50 
College Men and the Bible. Cooper. Paper 

boards, .50; cloth (illustrated) 1.00 

Primer on Teaching. Adams. .20 



178 COLLEGE MEN AND THE BIBLE 

The Seven Laws of Teaching. Gregory. $ .50 

The Teaching of Bible Classes. See. .60 

How to Read the Bible. Smith. .45 

How to Study the Bible. Torrey. .65 

Hints on Bible Study. Atkins. .45 

The Bible Hand-Book. Angus. 1.50 

Literary Study of the Bible. Moulton. 2.00 

How We Think. Dewey. 1.00 

The Pedagogical Bible School. Haslett. 1.25 

How to Study. McMurry. 1.25 

The Bible a Missionary Book. Horton. 1.00 

Starting to Teach. Foster. .40 

How to Make the Bible Real. King. .05 

Effective Leadership in Bible Classes. .05 

The Making of a Teacher. Brumbaugh. 1.00 

Training of the Twelve. Bruce. 2.00 

Point of Contact in Teaching. DuBois. .75 

INTELLECTUAL AND RELIGIOUS 
PROBLEMS 

The Fact of Christ. Simpson. $ .75 

Rational Living. King. 1.25 

Studies in Christianity. Bowne. 1.50 

The Essence of Religion. Bowne. 1.50 

Life Problems. .45 

The Field of Ethics. Palmer. 1.10 

Religious Certainty. McConnell. 1.00 

Sixty Years with the Bible. Clarke. 1.25 

How to Deal with Temptation. Speer. .25 

Things Fundamental. Jefferson. 1.50 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 179 

My Belief. Horton. $1.25 

Christian Evidences and Ethics. Schenck. .75 

Beyond the Natural Order. Best. .75 
Universal Elements of the Christian Religion. 

Hall. 1.25 

The Gospel for a World of Sin. Van Dyke. 1.25 
The Natural Law in the Spiritual World. Drum- 

mond. .60 

Nature and the Supernatural. Bushnell. 1.25 

Varieties of Religious Experience. James. 3.20 

Twice Born Men. Begbie. 1.25 

Souls in Action. Begbie. 1.25 

The Spiritual Life. Coe. 1.00 

The Divinity of our Lord. Liddon. 1.25 

The Right to Believe. Rowland. 1.25 

The True Doctrine of Prayer. Chamberlain. 1.00 

The Lord of Glory. Warfield. 1.50 

The Divine Reason of the Cross. Mabie. 1.00 

The World a Spiritual System. Snowden. 1.50 

The Philosophy of the Fourth Gospel. Johnston. 1.25 

To Christ through Criticism. Seaver. 1.50 

The Main Points. Brown. 1.25 

The Substance of Faith. Lodge. 1.00 

The Gospel for an Age of Doubt. Van Dyke. .60 

What is Christianity? Harnack. 1.50 
The Seeming Unreality of the Spiritual Life. 

King. 1.50 
Personal and Ideal Elements in Education. 

King. 1.50 



INDEX 



INDEX 



A 

Aim of the Bible 144 

Allahabad 39, 54 

Altruism, value of 56 

American Student Volunteers in the East 69 

American college man, Bible secretary for India and 

Ceylon 90 

Ancient restraints fail in the East 82 

An "elegant incognito" 141 

Annapolis Naval Academy in Bible study 6, 9 

Arnold, Matthew, quoted 

36, 55, 81, 94; referred to, 103, 113, 133 

"Armchair philosophy" 143 

Arya-Samaj .37 

Athletes, quoted 28, 89 

Athletic men and Bible study 7 

Attitude to Bible study, present 13 

Awakening not enlightenment 85 

B 

Baseball team members in Bible classes 9 

Basket-ball team members in Bible classes 9 

Beaconsfield, Lord, quoted 23 

Beecher, Lyman, referred to 154 

Benares, rites at . . 48, 51 

Bengal province, national movement 40 

Bible, as a fetish, 102; distribution in many tongues, 30; 

effect on modern Orient, 75-91; in China, 75-78, 87; 

in Japan, 78-81; in Korea, 80; in India, 38-41, 90; 

leadership in world movements, 157-159; more than 

ethics, 135; reveals love of God, 136; riches of, 30; 

Societies, 122; translations in India, 46; worth for 

real life, 29. 



184 INDEX 

Bible study, in American schools, 3-33; in Asia, 37-91; 
in China, 65, 77, 78; in India, 37-58; in Japan, 61-65; 
in Korea, 66, 69; in Young Men's Christian Asso- 
ciation, 131, 122; leads to prayer, 112, 113; libraries, 
11; literature, 11; methods, 115-118; preparation, 
12; spirit for highest results, 111; value of, 120-137. 

"Bird men" 101 

Blackie, John Stuart, quoted 124 

Boat crew members in Bible classes 9 

Bombay 39 

Book of Common Prayer, quoted 140 

Book of good cheer, the Bible a 122, 125 

Bosworth, Dean E. I., quoted, 120; referred to 113 

Boys' club work 31 

Brahman, caste, 48 ; teachers 37 

Brahmo-Samaj 37 

Brockman, Mr. Fletcher S., quoted 75 

Brokaw Field, Princeton, N. J 32 

Brooks, Phillips, quoted 115 

Brown, Henry E 99 

Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, quoted 120 

Buddhism 88 

Business Men's Bible classes 121 

Butler, Joseph, quoted 2 

c 

Cadets at West Point 3 

Calcutta, 39 ; religious education in 57 

Caine, Hall, quoted 94 

Call of the times for Bible leaders 145 

Campaign of education 71 

Canada, Chinese students in, 76, 77; volunteer Bible 

study by students in 4, 5 

"Capital is Protestant," remark of Michelet 74 

Carlyle, Thomas, referred to 117, 121 

Caste system affected by Bible study 47-50 

Century Magazine 16 

Changing conditions in Asia 72 



INDEX 185 

Chan Po Ling, Mr 25 

Character, essential, 83; genuineness, 28; institutions de- 
pendent on, 81 ; lack of, 51 ; supreme test of 133 

Chiba, Mr. Y. 62 

China, Bible study in, 65, 77, 78; council of cooperation, 
66; defensive efforts, 74; rapid transformation, 73; 
work of new national leaders, 77. 
Chinese, boys in American schools in 1872, and results, 76; 

students in Tokyo 80 

Christian missions, 84; principles 12 

Christ's Bible group 126 

Class presidents in Bible classes 9 

Clemens, S. L., and truth-telling 52 

Clemson Agricultural College 6 

College, ethics, 26; friendships and life, 14, 18; men in 

Bible study 3-10, 153-156 

Conscience, India's 50 

Columbia University, Bible study in 6, 13 

Commandments, the 143 

Commerce with the East 53 

Common Christian work for faculty and students 32 

Community and individual in Eastern Asia 86-87, 88 

Conf ucianist's view of virtue 78 

Connecticut student, a 21 

Conservatism of India 43, 55 

Corinthians (Second) iv. 2, quoted 120 

Cornell University, 20, 62; alumnus quoted, 10; Bible 

study in, 67 ; Oriental students at 13 

Cosmopolitan interest aroused in India 58 

Council supervising Bible literature preparation 12 

Courses, aim in, 99 ; outline of 11 

Criticism of Moses 87 

Crusades, modern 158 

Curriculum, Bible study 17 

D 

Daily and systematic Bible study 100, 103 

Dartmouth College 6 



186 INDEX 

Darwin, Charles, referred to 148 

Demon worship in Korea 88 

Drummond, Henry, quoted, 2, 20; referred to 8, 15 

Dwan Fan, viceroy in China 77 

Dynamic of the Bible 144 

E 

East Northfield, Mass., Secretaries' meeting at 99 

Easter Sunday in Japan 63 

Eastern students in North America 90 

Eddy, G. Sherwood, on the caste system 49 

Edison, Thomas A., quoted Ill 

Editors of college papers in Bible classes 9 

Educated Western men in the Far East 69 

Education, from Bible study, 128-130; true value of 28 

Eliot, George, quoted, 128 

Ellis Island 122 

Emerson, R. W., referred to 141 

Emory and Henry College 6 

English language in India 44, 45, 47 

Ephesians, Book of, for reading 116 

Essential Christianity 84 

Ethical teaching too vague 83 

"Extension work" 31 

F 

Faculty cooperation in Bible study 12 

Farrar, Dean, quoted 60 

Father and son, made equal by Christianity 82 

Field of the Bible 143 

Foreigners in Peking, Shanghai, Hongkong, Tokyo 72 

Forman Christian College, northern India 46 

Foss, Sam Walter, quoted, 16 

Football team members in Bible classes 9 

Fraternity groups for Bible study 7 

Friendships in Bible study 125, 126 

Froude, J. A., quoted 94 



INDEX 187 

G 

Gailey, Robert, success of in the East 70 

Ganges River devotees 48, 51 

Garibaldi, quoted 140 

Georgia School of Technology 6 

Gilder, Richard Watson, quoted 120, 140 

Gladstone, W. E., quoted 57 

Goethe, Carlyle's essay on 121 

Glee club members in Bible classes 9 

Good sense of the Bible 147 

Government, college hostels, 40, 54 ; schools in China 77 

Greek letter men at Cornell and Bible study 8, 10 

Group plan, 96, 97 ; advantages of 98 

Groups of thinking men to study and spread Bible ideals . .53 

H 

Habits of Bible study 18 

Hallam, quoted 94 

Harvard, Oriental students at 13 

Hastings, H. L., quoted 100 

Hearn, Laf cadio, quoted 60 

Hebrews iv. 12, 13, quoted 60 

Hindu students 37, 38, 54, 55 

History of Bible work among students 105 

Hoffman's portrait of the Christ 120 

Hopefuls, the 56 

Hughes, Charles E., quoted 25, 133 

Hugo, Victor, quoted 110, 149 

Hunt, Holman, referred to 117 

Huxley, Thomas, quoted 28 

I 
Ignorance of Bible facts and Christian ideas . . 13, 14, 16, 147 

Imperial University at Tokyo 62, 78 

Incidents introducing the Bible in Japan 61 

India college men, debate on religious education, 37, 38; 

Native college leaders 39, 40, 44 



188 



INDEX 



India, Bible study in, 37-58; conscience of, 50-52; exclu- 
siveness, 43, 55; government schools, 39-42; new atti- 
tude toward religious education, 37; real reform meas- 
ures, 53, 54; uniformity of type, 42. 

Indiana, testimonies from 20, 22 

Indifference to morals and religion 82 

Individual suggestions to Bible students 109-111 

Individuality, development of in India 42, 43 

IngersolTs lecture 109 

Intellectual Hinduism unsatisfying 48 

Intellectual life of Jesus 147 

International Committee. See Student Department 

"Introduction to Philosophy," referred to 23 

Introspection in India a disease 55, 56 

Iowa State College 6 

Irrigation in India 54 

Isaiah, Book of, for study, 149 ; quoted 101 

J 

Jackson, S. Trevena, quoted 140 

Japan, achievement, 72; Advisory Council of scholars, 
63; army and navy, 72; Bible interest, 61-65; leader- 
ship of the Christian Church, 73; rapid emergence, 
72; students, 23, 79; teachers, 61. 

Jenks, Professor Jeremiah W., referred to 62 

Jesus, Bible training class of, 152; chief Bible person- 
ality, 117. 

Jewish young men's Bible class 13 

Job, Book of 110, 149 

John, Gospel of, v. 38, 39, quoted, 94; viii. 32, quoted, 

2 ; for reading and study 116, 149 

Jones, Dr. J. P., quoted, 51 ; views of 97 

K 

Kant, Immanuel, quoted 66 

Keystone State Normal School 6 

King, Henry Churchill, quoted 94 



INDEX 189 

Kingdom of God, the 54 

Kingsley, Charles, quoted 15 

Kipling, Rudyard, quoted 70, 91 

Korea, status of 72 

Korean students enthusiastic in Bible movement 66-69 

L 

Lafayette College 6 

Lahore, University in 37, 39 

Laotze 88 

Larned, Colonel, quoted 4 

Lawrenceville School 6 

Leaders in college life and Bible classes 9, 10 

Lecture method 96 

"Life of Christ," by Sharman 99 

Lincoln, A., message to, 140 ; quoted 141 

Literary men and the Bible 148-150 

Literature influenced by the Bible 149, 150 

Livingstone, David, referred to 36 

Locke, John 114 

Lodge, Sir Oliver, referred to 148 

Lyon, Dr. Willard, work of in the East 65 

Luke iv. 18, quoted 94 

M 

Madras, 39, 40 ; worker in, quoted 44 

Manchuria, China in, 74; victories of Japan in 72 

Mann, Dr. H. H., referred to 42 

Marcus Aurelius, referred to 113 

Markham, Edwin, referred to 149 

Martyrs' Memorial Hall, Shanghai, Bible classes in 65 

Massachusetts medical student's testimony 20 

Matthew x. 39, quoted 60 

Meeting in Korea 67-69 

Memorizing not as good as analysis 87 

Merchant classes, decoration of by Emperor 81 

Methods of Bible reading and study 94-118 

Michelet, quoted 74 



190 INDEX 

Midnight thinking 115 

Midshipmen at Annapolis and Bible study 9 

Mission in Southern India, work of Yale man 57 

Mississippi Agricultural College 6 

Mistakes of ignorance in the Far East 71 

"Mistakes of Moses," the 109 

Milton, John, referred to 149 

Mohammedan, view of the social system, 47; students ..37, 38 

"Money" and religion 74 

"Moral advice" desired by Viceroy 77 

Morse, Richard C 99 

Moral, laws and social conduct in India, 52; hope from 

Christian teaching 53, 54 

Motives tested by the Bible 144 

Mott, John R., quoted 39 

N 

Nanking, China, examination stalls being torn down 77 

Napoleon, quoted 140 

Nash, Professor, quoted 91 

National, Student Bible Secretary for India and Ceylon, 

90 ; Young Men's Union of Japan 63 

"New China," the, 75 ; America's help in education 76 

New Hampshire 20 

New York Bible Society 122 

Nirvana 88 

Niwa, Mr. N., Japanese educator 62 

North America, plan of students referred to 3 

Northwestern College 6 

o 

Ober, Charles K 99 

Ohio man's study 21,22 

Omedwar, the 56 

Opium reform 75 

Opportunity for introducing Bible study 78 

Organization of a Bible study department, 105-108; quick- 
canvass, the 107 



INDEX 191 

Orient, the, influence of Japan as leader, 23; relation to 

modern learning 75 

Oriental students in American colleges IS 

Osaka, model groups in, 63; interest and results 64 

"Oscar, Westover," 27 

Outlines for Bible study, 99; preparation of 99, 100 

Oxford man's work at Allahabad 54 

P 

Parables in Eastern setting , .. 114 

Parable of the Ten Virgins, Mohammedan's version of ....46 

Parsee students 37 

Patriotic devotion of Koreans 68 

Paul, as a personality for study, 110; his writings ...114, 116 

Paulsen, Frederick, quoted 23 

Peking, Chinese students in 70 

Pennsylvania, school, 20 ; State College 6, 21 

Peril of China from foreign interest 74 

Permanence of the Bible . 134 

Personal, acceptance of Christianity, 55; religion result- 
ing from the Bible 88, 143 

Perspective, life's true 23, 24 

Philadelphian Society at Princeton 32 

Philippians iii. 13, 14, quoted 140 

Phillips, Wendell, quoted 154 

Photography and Hindu piety 51 

Physical reserve 29 

Pilgrim Father, statue of 89 

Plans for Bible study at West Point 3 

"Poetry of Jesus, The," papers by Markham 149 

Pollok, Robert, quoted 36 

Poona school 42 

Preacher and teacher 97 

Preacher and Bible leadership 150, 152, 153 

Present-day problems, Bible relation to, 141; changing 

viewpoints 142 

Princeton University, athlete in the Far East, 70; Bible 

study, 6 ; social service 31 



192 INDEX 

Prize and scholarship men in Bible classes 9 

Professional school students in New York City, 8; in 

other cities 9 

Proof texts 25 

Proverbs, reading of Book of, 106; study of 21 

Psalm cxix. 105, quoted 36 

Psalms, value of for study 110 

Purdue University •. 19 

Q 

Questions to students 26 

R 

Rank of a professor in Indian college 78 

Real values gained by Bible study 24 

Religious, accent changing in India, 52, 53; affinities of 

students, 13, 14 ; revival 134 

Representative students in Bible classes 9 

Requirements for success in the Orient 69 

Results, practical, 14, 17, 24 

Reverence for learning, Eastern 78 

Revision of personal ideas of God and man 144 

Rites of Hinduism 48 

Rochester Student Volunteer Convention 75 

Rochester Theological Seminary 62 

Romans xv. 4, quoted 94 

Ruskin, John, quoted, 101 ; referred to 149 

s 

Salvation Army 32 

Scientific temper needed in Bible work 146 

Seminar plan 97 

Seoul, Young Men's Christian Association building in 67 

Service, India's hope, 56; result of Bible study 130-132 

Shairp, John, quoted 118 

Shanghai, China 65 

Sharman, H. B., referred to 99 

Shintoist's belief, a 64 



INDEX 193 

Small group plan of Bible study in Japan 63 

Smith, George Adam, quoted 15 

Social, evening of Bible students in India, 49; religion, 

143; service with new extension plans 31-33 

"Social Significance of the Teachings of Jesus," referred to . . 62 

Spencer, Herbert, quoted 51, 81 

Spiritual life quickened by Bible movement 81 

Stanford University 6 

State Bible Study Institute, Michigan University 31 

State College, Pennsylvania 21 

State Institutions, development in 10 

State of Washington 21 

Statistics, Bible circulation, 30; Bible study text-books, 
11; cadet Bible students, 3; Chinese students in 
America, 76; college and other school Bible students, 
4-6, 7-10, 17, 28, 29, 62, 65 t 68, 121, 131,^154; faculty 
men in Bible work, 12; mission study college students, 
70; New Testaments by a church in Korea, 66, 67; 
normal classes, 12; preparatory school students in 
Japan, 62; reference libraries, 11; representative 
students in Bible classes, 9; Sunday school enrol- 
ment, 121; Tokio students, 79, 80; total American 
student field, 154; Young Men's Christian Associa- 
tion Bible students, 121, 122. 

Stevenson, R. L., views of the Bible 123, 129 

Studd, Charley, quoted 89 

Student Department, International Committee, Young 

Men's Christian Association 4, 95, 99 

Student Christian Association method 97 

Student, leadership, 5, 104; types 86 

Sun, New York, quoted, 134 ; referred to 2 

Syracuse University 6 

T 

Twain, Mark, quoted on truth-telling 52 

Table of institutions engaged in Bible study 6 

Taoism 87, 88 

Teacher of teachers, a 146 



194 INDEX 

Teaching profession and the Bible 145 

Teachings of the Bible affect daily life 26 

Technical training in India 54 

Telegraph of the mind 57 

Tennyson, Alfred, quoted 113, 148 

"The real thing," as a tribute to character 27 

Theological School at Fukuoka, Japan 62 

"Third Order of the Rising Sun" 81 

Thwing, Charles F., referred to 16 

Thoughtful habits acquired 18 

Tientsin, China 25 

Tokyo, institute in, 79 ; students in 79, 80 

Tolstoy, Count Leo 149 

Track team members in Bible classes 9 

Truth and righteousness essential in trade 82, 83 

u 

Uniform but colorless type of student 86 

United States, Chinese students in, 76; Military Academy, 

West Point, 3, 4, 6; Naval Academy, Annapolis, 6, 9; 

volunteer Bible study students, 4, 5. 
University men, lack of Bible and Christian knowledge ..13-16 
University, of Illinois, 6, 10, 21; of Michigan, 7, 10; of 

Minnesota, 10; of Pennsylvania, 6, 10-13; of Texas, 6; 

of Toronto, 6; of Wisconsin, 6, 10, 20; of Virginia, 6. 
Utilitarian view of Bible study 30 

V 

Values of Bible and Bible study 13-33, 120-137 

Varied faiths of Chinese students 86 

Vedas, the 47 

Vernacular of the twentieth century 25 

Virtue to be acquired, view of a Confucianist 78 

Vocational plans and the Bible 28 

Volunteer Bible study, movement for 4, 5 



INDEX 195 

w 

Wanamaker, John, gift of to Korea 67 

Washington Agricultural College 6 

Watson, William, quoted 43 

Webb School 6 

West Point, Military Academy, Bible study in, 3, 4, 6; 

cadet, quoted 3, 27 

Western Reserve University 16 

Weston's walk 101 

"What is Christianity?" as a helpful topic 17 

Whittier, J. G., quoted 129 

Will, the, influence of Bible on 28 

William Jewell College 6 

Wilson, Governor Woodrow, quoted 156 

Wishard, Luther D 99 

World's Student Christian Federation 39 

Women students 62 

Wordsworth, quoted 24 

Wright, Professor Henry B 28 

X 

Xavier, Francis, referred to 60 

Y 

Yale, University Bible students, 6, 28; graduate in Cal- 
cutta 57 

Ye Sang Chai, Mr., work of in Korea 68 

Young Men's Christian Association, Bible study methods 
and features, 95, 121, 122; building in Seoul, Korea, 
67. See also Student Department. 



JUL T2 191* 



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